Ultimate Hope of the Little Garden
by Unlawful Waffle
Summary: A small change leads to much bigger results. The Ultimate Hope, the epitome of humanity, is dropped off in a place where 'boring' is the last thing on his mind. A world too illogical, a place beyond his comprehension and an unknown future. 'No matter who the enemy may be, those who can't adapt will be the first to die.' Looks like this bundle of talent will have to readjust.
1. Chapter 1: Goodbye Old World

**I don't own Danganronpa, Mondaiji tachi or any other things I use in this story except my OCs.**

* * *

The sound of loud, hurried steps reverberating in the corridors could be heard, those steps belonged to a certain girl. A scowl marred her otherwise beautiful face. The girl in question could be described in two words, _awfully_ _pissed_.

Let it be known that Asuka isn't always this angry, quite the opposite really. She had the calm and the elegance of a true noble, one fit for the name of Kudou. Those manners were ingrained into her body and mind from her youth.

However no one is here at the moment -except a couple of servants and her expression should keep them away- so she can drop that rigid act all she wants ' _I can't believe how they can keep the act of having a bundle of sticks shoved up thei-'_ she cut off her _unrefined_ thoughts, focusing more on reaching her room.

She just came back from a trip,, which might have had something to do with how angry she is now. ' _I went all the way over there to convince some old coot to agree to something?'_ she was told that she had an important task to do, important enough to send her to Aomori, which is _very_ far from her home and it turns out she was supposed to convince some old coot to do something?

Not only was it stupid that they sent her a _child_ -well not really but her point still stands- all the away to the furthest corner of Japan to talk to some guy that's one foot deep into his grave about something that she already forgot. But the thing that left her _incredibly_ irritated is how long it took. She told him to do it and he immediately followed her orders, not that it wasn't expected but the fact that she had to travel days to do something that took less than 5 seconds, understandably, didn't sit well with her the whole trip back.

And the chirping of those darn cicadas sure wasn't helping her calm down.

" **Shut up!** "

The cicadas stopped chirping and the sounds of her footsteps can be heard again, it was a sight really, it was like turning off the light, it happened instantly. It seems the heir of the Kudou family always gets what she wants, whether from humans as well as from animals.

Well the trip explained her anger, but what about her haste? Well if the cicadas weren't a clue, it was because Japan is having its season of abundance. How she hated the summer here, not that she experienced summer anywhere else mind you, but she supposed that anything is better.

What makes this worse is her incredibly uncomfortable clothes, her knee-length black skirt restricted her movement and covered her body well -as it should-, but it's doing its job _too_ well. Her long-sleeved white shirt hugged her frame thoroughly and this would've _normally_ been fine ' _but normally doesn't include a blazing dog day of summer!'_ she could already feel her shirt sticking onto her because of the sweat.

Which explains the second dilemma, for she wants to go to her room, take off her clothes and have a nice relaxing bath after all she went through. She continued walking in the huge mansion until she reached her destination.

Her safe haven.

Her room.

The room was big but utterly normal, if you ignore the frequency of the colour red that is. It served as both her study as well as her place to lounge and sleep. There was nothing special in it but that's why she loved it so, it made her feel normal and it was basically the only place where she can be herself and not the heir of the Kudou family.

She headed for the bathroom and washed her face using the faucet, when she opened her eyes she found two blue orbs staring back at her. She inspected herself in the mirror, she was the same as usual, her favourite red ribbons tied her hair on the sides, speaking of her hair it seemed to be a bit messy due to the humidity but she was going to take a shower soon anyway. It true that she looks the same as always but in her eyes she seemed a bit… tired.

She walked back to her room and flopped on her bed, she wasn't satisfied with how it shook so she bounced again, this time face on the pillow. Her grip tightened on the pillow and she shouted her heart out, although it came out as a more muffled scream. It was one of the ways she relieved her stress and let out her frustrations.

Silence descends.

After a few more moments knocking was heard from the door, if one were to explain the the knocking it can only be described as confused or worried, probably a mixture of the two.

"Ojou-sama?" a voice called out with a small sign of worry.

She stood up very quickly and cleared her throat before opening the door. Behind it stood one of the maids, she couldn't remember her name and didn't want to either. Her family had simply too many of them and the relationship between the two are merely professional. They work for us, they get paid, nothing more, nothing less.

"Yes, what do you want?" Asuka calmly questioned.

"I heard about you coming back from the trip so I brought refreshments." The maid politely explained.

' _My hero!'_ though now she felt a bit guilty that she didn't remember her name "Yes I needed that, thank you." she spoke once again with elegance as she grabbed the drink. "You can go now- and oh, **you didn't hear anything!** " she hurriedly added a bit embarrassed.

"Yes Ojou-sama." A monotonous voice replied followed by the door closing.

Asuka let out a sigh of relief and placed the drink on her table, she idly noticed an envelope lying on her table. She was sure that she locked the room when she left so she supposed that it has to be one of the letters that she forgot to read. ' _Great another Prince Charming.'_ she rolled her eyes, she's been getting a lot of letters from other noble families or rather their heirs. The mostly told her how much they're head over heels for her even though they've never met before and she found that disgusting.

She decided to read this letter. After all, they're quite the entertaining reads right before they're sent to the trash can.

* * *

She honestly didn't know expect when she went on her adventure and honestly she hadn't think about it, she just did it. However, she knew what she wanted. She wanted to live through the same adventures her father always told her when he visits, ones with magic and monsters.

But she knew that was too much to ask. Not that she didn't believe those things existed, quite the opposite she believes they do with all her heart, because her father said so. His stories were always breathtaking and remarkably genuine. There was no speck of lies in his eyes and there was as much speck of doubt in her heart, even if other people don't believe it.

It's not that they don't exist, it's that she doesn't know where to look. She gave up on the idea with no tiny bit of regret and she decided to substitute for exploring. That however, was also hard in this day and age where mankind has seen pretty much everything there is to see on planet Earth, so much that they started visiting other planets and celestial bodies in space.

It was only with these two possibilities out of the way that she started doing serious research. Which led her here, in a flying ship on her way to the floating island Osaka, named after the ruined city it's built above. Her journey is taking her to the holy mountain of her country, Mount Fuji.

It's been one of the only remaining places here that haven't been touched by mankind. Her end destination isn't Mount Fuji itself though. While it's is indeed a famous hiking spot and it's most likely also worth the trip, but what she's looking for isn't tourism, it's to visit Aokigahara.

Aokigahara is a forest located on the base of Mount Fuji, the forest has a long history of being residence to yūrei[1] and is also well known for its suicide rates, granting it the nickname of Suicide Forest. Whether the two things have anything to do with each other is an interesting theory, but whatever it is, one can not deny that a place like that just _screams_ adventure. Worst case scenario she'll walk out having met more friends.

" **Are we there yet Yō-jou-chan?"** a voice asked.

The girl, Yō, shifted her eyes from staring outside the window to, surprisingly, the cat on her lap "Yeah, we're almost there Calico." She answered.

Yō, despite looking plain with her short brown hair, eyes of matching colour and maybe eccentric choice of clothing, she is special in a way, mainly being able to talk to- and understand animals.

It all began when she was a child…

To say that Yō wasn't a healthy child would be like saying Earth is a big part of the universe, both being understatements and one step away from stupidity. She got sick very quickly each time she went outside and she didn't have the ability to go outside on her own either, both the results of her weak physical constitution she had since birth. There was no cure to it so she just had to live with it.

She wasn't always alone for Calico, her cat named after the same breed (she wasn't that creative as a child.), has always been with her during the hard times when her father wasn't there.

Her dad would visit her sometimes then leave for a long period.

Still, she didn't mind, for each time he paid her a visit, he'd tell her the most amazing stories ever. Forget about those books with princesses being kidnapped and dragon-slaying knights, those all paled in comparison. She didn't know whether she liked the stories because of how real the fantasy was or because the way her dad told them with his gestures and expressions. All she knew is that she liked them, _a lot_.

One day, her father came to visit her once again. This time however, he brought a gift with him alongside the story. It has been the necklace she treasured her whole life after receiving it. The necklace is a simple, but strong, string with a wooden carving as the pendant. Her father asked her to wear it and the moment she did, her world changed.

It was nothing short of a miracle, her sickness has been cured and she had walked on her own two feet for the first time in her life. It was only shortly thereafter that she realised she could speak to animals when Calico came congratulating her while complaining about hospital food.

Yet not all was well, Yō had _some_ issues making friends. You'd think that it's because of the time spent in hospital she'd be socially awkward thus granting her hardships in that certain task. But that was not the case, she was still a normal girl with the same mindset as the rest of her age group.

It was because they didn't believe her.

They said the stories her dad told her were made up and they laughed at her when she said she could talk to animals. This caused her to become more introverted and interact more with animals than humans.

On the day her father gave her the necklace, he told her he'd take her on his next adventure but he never did. She believed that he'd come one day but she grew tired of waiting so she decided to go on her own adventure, leading to the current event.

She walked out of the station of Osaka and enjoyed the city's view during the fall, the yellow leaves were falling but thankfully it wasn't that chilly yet. She decided to take a look at the city before her next stop, there's still some time before the ship to Nagoya flies.

" **I have to say, this looks exactly the same as home, I'm afraid I don't see the adventure in this Ojou-chan."** Calico spoke as he looked around while being carried in her arms.

"We aren't there yet Calico, this is merely a stop." Yō calmly explained.

" **Heeeh!?"** The cat gasped " **But we've been traveling for 12 hours!"**

"But we've only been at it for 2 hours…" she retorted.

" **That's 12 hours in cat time! Come on~ let's take a rest."**

The brunette giggled at his antics and decided to take a rest in a nearby café. When she entered the place she bumped into someone, Yō apologized but he seemed to ignore her, going on his way. She idly noticed that the café is empty and her eyes caught something on the ground, she was about to run outside to return what she assumed was something the man had dropped until she noticed what the thing was. A letter, more importantly, what was written _on_ the letter.

 _ **To Kasukabe Yō**_

* * *

Lots of people can be seen walking in the city square of Kyoto, though it's not crowded as usual. It might be because of the current time, people have their jobs to attend to and students have their school to be in. Which is why the one student in the crowd of people was drawing some weird looks.

It's spring, there are no national holidays and it's currently noon. So one would expect a student like him to be in school, not wandering around the urban square and he _should_ be a student, judging by the uniform that belongs to the nearby high school. People had limited information, causing unnecessary doubts, one of such is why the people are avoiding this student.

The young male had messy blonde hair, now that in of itself wasn't enough to make people walk the other way. It was the posture, his stance just screamed trouble. When people don't have enough information they connect what they already have. This student is not in school when he should, he had bleached his hair blond and he looks intimidating. Put one and one (and one more) together and you have a delinquent.

The delinquent-looking student continued striding, uncaring of what people thought, he adjusted his headphones and went one his way. To onlookers it might appear that he's listening music, but in reality the headphones weren't really plugged into anything. He was only wearing them because he treasured them and the way they stopped people from approaching him only made it that more convenient.

Today had to mark the most boring day of Sakamaki Izayoi's life. Nothing is happening, no alien invasion, no idiots to beat up and he wasn't going to actively look for them and school? Well that's the funniest thing he heard all day, he didn't even know why he attended anymore. All he did was skip everyday until the tests which then he aces in less than 5 minutes and repeat the cycle.

But he did know why, it's the same reason why he enlisted in the first place, because it would make _her_ happy. Frankly, he's way too smart for high school, college is no different and that wasn't his arrogance speaking this time, it's a fact.

But at the time he enrolled only to please his mother in everything but blood, as one of her final wishes…

You see, Izayoi was an orphan since birth. Nothing is known about his parents and he was sent to an orphanage. He didn't have the best of luck with adoptive parents, or was it the adoptive parents that didn't have the luck? That doesn't matter, all that matters is that they didn't do it out of love nor out the kindness of their hearts.

Everyone had their own reasons and it just happens that Izayoi found them disgusting. One adopted him to keep image, other did it so he can have a heir to give his fortune to when he kicks the bucket so that it doesn't get in the hands of the family he hated. The one thing they all had in common is that they did it for personal gain.

He hated them.

He hated how selfish people are.

He hated this world.

But _she_ was different, she was the first person to acquire his interest, the first person that treated him his age and the first person that ever loved him unconditionally.

She taught him how to love this world he so despised, she showed that even this messed up place has some beauty in it. Izayoi pondered how he'd turn out if he didn't meet her, he thought he might've destroyed the world out of boredom just to see what comes after.

His thought process stopped after he bumped into someone, he ignored it more importantly noting that he's one step away from his destination. The other person however had other ideas in mind. "Hey!" He grabbed the blonde's shoulder motioning him to stop "Watch where the fuck yer walkin' shithead!" he shouted rather loudly.

The man looked like a punk, with tattoos on his face and a cigarette in his mouth. He wore a black leather jacket with the the kanji [Ryū] meaning dragon. That indicated that he's a member of the yakuza group that goes by the name of Ryūjin, it's written with the kanji of [Dragon] and [God].

Said man froze when cold amethyst eyes gazed at him. His instincts told him to apologize and run _the hell_ away. But it was too late, he caused a commotion and people were started staring at them. His pride stopped him from doing the first and his arrogance, being a member of such a big organization stopped him from doing the second.

When the blonde didn't see any reaction he turned his back to the punk and stepped inside the nearby shop. It's decided, there's no choice left for him anymore, he couldn't bear to be humiliated and dragging the organisation's name through the mud with so many people watching so he followed the blonde, cocking his arm back, preparing for a punch "Where do ya think yer goin' you fu-"

Only to fly outside of the shop, feeling so much pain despite losing the feeling of over half of his body, the pain multiplied when his lost momentum turned into force as his body collided with the stone wall of the opposite shop. He lost his consciousness as his body remained planted in the the wall.

If one were to look inside the shop they'd see Izayoi holding a finger in the air. "Hey Ojisan," Izayoi called out to the startled shopkeeper. "Give me one of each." he pointed to three bars of chocolate in the confectionery.

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Izayoi was on his way back to his dorm, he took out one bar from the plastic bag, it was a normal milk chocolate. The other two were white chocolate and black chocolate, ' _Suzuka always liked the former, while Homura enjoyed the latter for some reason.'_

He opened the packaging, only to see something that made him raise an eyebrow in surprise. It was one of those 'You have the unlikely chance of winning something!'-sweets with coupons inside. He didn't expect to win- and he indeed didn't win, for what was inside wasn't a coupon.

* * *

A woman in a lab coat had her eyes glued to the screen that displayed the results of the recent test, it's one of the last ones before she returns back to her branch in America. She spent the entire night preparing her leave, the dark bags under her eyes displaying how much sleep she had. Still she'll hold on for now, thoughts of vacation after her return are what kept her going.

She brushed the golden locks that hindered her view, cursing silently in irritation. She checked them one last time, the subject is fine, like they'd always been each day for the past six months.

Honestly she had no idea why they kept on doing these check-ups, the higher-ups asked (ordered) her to just to be safe but she only found it as extra work and as such, a nuisance.

She pushed herself off the table and turned around.

Only to find herself one inch away from unnaturally crimson eyes staring right at her. "For Schrödinger's sake!" she couldn't help but curse in surprise. "What did I tell you about sneaking up behind people's back?!"

A pale face stared back at her in monotone. His long ebony hair swayed as the figure tilted his head in what seems to be thought. "Nothing?" The answer came in the form of a question.

The scientist scrunched her face in thought, trying to recall an instance where she said that with no success. "Exactly." She huffed "Because it's commo-" she cut off, a mug being held by the raven-haired man next to her face.

"Here Jessica," he added with a smug expression "You're not you when you're stressed out." as he quoted a commercial.

Jessica took the mug with a resigned yet thankful sigh "Thanks, I needed that." as she took a sip of the drink which seemed like coffee. In one sip, she felt like she had enough energy to last her one more day. "I _really_ needed that." she emphasised, though an eyebrow was raised.

"A special brew." The male answered the unsaid question "You'll sleep like a log at the end of the day though." He added with a tiny smirk.

That smirk was mirrored and multiplied on her lips "I was planning on doing that anyway."

"So," Jessica started "what do you want? I doubt you came here to give me coffee from the goodness of your heart."

A betrayed expression crossed his face "Oh ye of little faith!" she rolled her eyes at his antics "Well just came here to tell you that I'm going out." His choice of clothing was kind of a dead giveaway, a vest with a shirt underneath, a jacket and a scarf, not forgetting his trademark black tie. All of them bar the tie had star designs on them, one of the few unsolved mysteries in this place. Whenever anyone asks about them he just smiles and avoids answering the inquiry.

"Oh yeah," she let out in comprehension "it's that day huh? Still I don't see why you need to tell me that." Normally, the youth in front of her isn't allowed outside, the higher-ups' (those guys again) decision. It's for him to remain a secret, though in reality they're just scared that he'll abandon the academy if they let him out. So they made him stay inside most of the time to make sure he's loyal to the Academy before sending him outside.

"Because if I didn't tell you, you'd look around for me and fail in finding me so you end up blaming it on me and then I'll be getting an unnecessary lecture on briefing people on my location." He answered in one breath with that monotonous face of his.

"Oh please, I'm not that bad." An eyebrow rose "Ok, but I'm not _that_ bad…" He looked like he's about to list of a bunch of examples "Alright! Get going, don't make me keep you from enjoying your free time!" Jessica hurried with waning confidence.

She let out a sigh in relief, thankful that he gave up easily this time. ' _Oh yeah'_ she looked at his moving back "Have fun, Izuru... and do tell Daichi to stop playing those stupid games during work!"

Izuru just waved over his shoulder and continued walking.

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Only the sound of the staff's footsteps could be heard as I walked in the empty hall, some of them greeted me and I gave them a nod of acknowledgement in response. It didn't take long to reach where I wanted to be, I know this underground facility like the back of my hand so it wasn't hard to find the shortest route to the entrance.

"Aww~ Aren't you the cutest thing ever! Don't you agree Izuru?"

Alongside the biggest pain in the ass in this place. The big man behind the desk is the facility's gatekeeper, and the obstacle to my freedom. He was part of the first generation of talents, he's the former Ultimate Security Guard. And he's currently shoving a picture frame in my face.

"It stopped being cute after the 57th time you showed this to me this week only." It was a picture of his daughter's 3rd birthday. His daughter sitting on the ground as he and his wife stood by each of her sides smiling, the guest of honor was wearing a white dress and shoving a chocolate cake in her mouth, pieces of the cake were stuck on her face making her expression more comical. The fact that she's chubby made it all that much cuter.

And of course I'm not going to say that or I'm not going to hear the end of it- Wait, I'm _already_ not hearing the end of it, I shudder at how worse this can get.

"You only say that because you're jealous." He placed the frame back on his desk when he stopped gushing over it.

I ignored him, I have my own thing to do. "Open the door Daichi and you should know that your Alt-Tab-ing didn't go unnoticed. Jessica asked me to tell you to stop playing 'stupid games during work'" I used quotation marks for the last part.

Daichi having nothing to hide anymore just maximised the window again and he was playing that new digital card game. It looks like he's losing. "Hey Izuru, what do you think I should do?" He's asking me for advice to get him out of this predicament.

"Open the door."

"As helpful as always." He played a card, it seemed to work in his favour with a bit of luck. "Boom, look at this skill."

… "Daichi I swear if you don't open this fucking door I'll open it myself and lay the blame on you." I threatened. This seemed to get a reaction out of him as he finally left the game alone and turned his attention to me.

"Woah, woah." He gestured me to calm down "Easy there buddy, as much as I would like to see you try to punch your way through 40 inch of steel, I don't want to pay for the dents. I promised my baby to take her to the beach with my next salary."

"One last time, open the damn door."

"Language there buddy, I miss the ol' innocent Izuru whom dictionary only contained the word 'Boring'." I began to roll up my sleeves "Okay, okay... Here, door open. Happy?" The gate opened as he clicked on a button.

I let out a sigh "By the way you're turn's almost up." He faced the screen only to see his turn being skipped due to inactivity. I just begin walking to the entrance pleased with my reprisal.

"WHAT! How did he do 15 damage in one turn?! This RNG is fucking stupid!" He shot me a dirty glare "This is all your fault, you did it on purpose."

I only shrugged and continued walking out "And oh by the way," I added "Next time I'm cooking, you're not getting anything."

At this point I'm already out of his line of sight, though if I had to imagine his reaction would've been comical.

"IT'S JUST A PRANK IZURU!"

In my view came my home, Hope's Peak Academy, covered in white. Winter had been nice enough to drop snow here this year. I have to say freedom looks very nice this time of the year. There was no one on campus during this cold day, the only sound that could be heard was-

"IT WAS JUST A SOCIAL EXPERIMENT!"

The sound of sweet, sweet regret.

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I made my way through the campus and while walking I figured something out; I have no idea what to do.

The whole point of this outing is to be outside, not do anything in particular. Not that I could do anything in particular with this weather, the students are in their dorms and even if they were outside I would avoid them anyway. The worst thing about this is that no fast food chain would probably deliver with this thick snow.

It ruined one source of enjoyment for me, nevertheless I find snow to be very beautiful on my home. As my first time looking at it, I have to say I'm not disappointed."

All of that doesn't solve the issue of boredom, let's see… What do people normally do to have fun in winter? Snowball fight? Nah, there's no one to fight and playing catch by myself would grow mundane quickly. I guess building a snowman could work, let's see why people enjoy doing it.

First of all a location. Doing it in the middle of campus would attract too much attention, something I want to avoid if these outings are to become frequent. A suitable, deserted location…

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Something like the school's stadium for sports and athletics. It's an open stadium, meaning that it's filled with snow resulting in putting the club activities on hold. I think I heard that they're planning to install a convertible dome in spring.

As I walk into the stadium, I notice something in the middle. I came here to build a snowman, but it looks like someone beat me to the punch. What I see is what you'd call a 'stereotypical' snowman; A top hat on his head, a scarf around his neck, a carrot for a nose, sticks for arms and buttons for eyes and well… buttons.

Coincidences can occur but something about this snowman makes me feel off. It looks fine- No, it looks perfect, _too_ perfect...

There can only be one explanation for this: This is the work of an Ultimate!

The Ultimate Snowman Maker to be precise…

Ok no, doubt it to be honest. The Ultimate Snowman Maker would make something better than this, wait does this school even have an Ultimate Snowman Maker? You never really know, people hell 'study' luck for crying out loud.

Huh? Upon closer inspection it seems to be holding something, an envelope? It's sealed with blue wax, the seal is depicting two swordsmen facing each other.

Well anyway, it has nothing to do with me.

That thought is thrown out completely, I found out as I read the back of the envelope. It says:

 _ **To Izuru Kamukura**_

Alright, so it's safe to assume that's for me? But who could've wrote this? Someone must've been expecting me to come, not only outside but also in this location in particular. Building a snowman be damned, this is way more interesting. Let's see what our perpetrator has to say.

' **To all young ladies and gentlemen possessing extraordinary talents:**

 **If you wish to test these Gifts' potential. Put your family, friends, wealth and all the world aside and come to our "Garden" '**

A flash of light followed and I found myself falling from about four thousand meters up in the air. View of what _couldn't_ be Earth could be seen from here, endless sea of green, endless numbers of domes, and a big beam of light in the distance.

I didn't think about how dangerous such a fall is.

I didn't think of how pretty this place is.

My mind was filled with the thought of this being surreal, too illogical, too magical.

I heard three different cries and noticed that I'm not the only one in such a predicament, what I also noticed is that we're almost hitting the surface of a lak-

Four big splashes followed.

* * *

End Chapter

* * *

 **Extra**

Jimmy was a normal college student, he had normal dreams and lived with normal expectations.

He wanted to grow up, get a normal job that pays enough to survive the natural disaster that humans call 'taxes', hook up with some normal looking woman, not pretty because those are out of his league but also not ugly because no one likes an ugly person.

If one would describe Jimmy in one word it'd be: Average.

He wasn't smart, but he wasn't dumb either.

He wasn't handsome, but even a couple of girls could appreciate his looks.

He wasn't social, but still had a couple of people who he can call friends.

If it hasn't gotten into your head yet, what I'm saying is that Jimmy is not special in _any_ way.

This day however, was very special for Jimmy. He is currently walking in the town square after a hard day of work. He decided to eat out and he made the choice that would change his entire life from this moment:

He ordered Chinese.

Empire Wok is still a growing restaurant, and it's growing faster due to the rumors surrounding their dessert. The dessert can wait, the main dish comes first.

Jimmy had a satisfying meal of fried rice and shrimp, now is the time to talk about the dessert. That's where things get interesting, you see… Jimmy is a college student, and you know these guys have nothing better to do than procrastinating their assignments and spreading rumours.

One rumour being that if you get your fortune from a fortune cookie in this restaurant, by placing it under your pillow for three days without peeking, your fortune will come true.

One normally wouldn't believe such nonsense and Jimmy certainly didn't. However, not much different from someone having a conversation with a child, he decided to humor the rumour and try his tarot.

So he got his fortune cookies, two of them to be exact, and broke the first one before eating it. Jimmy doesn't enjoy the taste of paper in his mouth. And he is certainly not amused by the taste of the fortune cookies, they were 'meh'. Not good and not bad which is the worst thing for him.

Then again, people don't buy fortune cookies for their taste, they buy them to waste money by paying extra for some paper with vague shit on them, which Jimmy understands.

His first fortune is:

 **People are naturally attracted to you.**

Okay, yep. It's been confirmed, this whole thing is absolute bullshit.

As if he'd be popular.

With a sigh, Jimmy opened the next one. At this point he just wanted to get it over with and go back home, take a nap or three and continue his daily routine.

The next piece of disappointment read:

' **To all young ladies and gentlemen possessing extraordinary talents:**

 **If you wish to test these Gifts' potential. Put your family, friends, wealth and all the world aside and come to our "Garden" '**

Jimmy's intelligent reply to this was: 'Wat?'

Alright, alright let's take it nice and slow... 'To all young ladies and gentlemen' Well Jimmy guesses that he _is_ indeed young. Well he's not at the point that he'd call himself old yet so that's something.

'Possessing extraordinary talents' Okay… this is where he's lost. If this was a phone call, it would be at this point that he says 'Wrong number.' and hangs up. Talents, not to mention _extraordinary_ talents? Nah, that's not him.

The light shining on Jimmy's face becomes only brighter, ' _Seriously hasn't the person casting it noticed that it's in my face, are they trying to blind me?!'_ he thought.

His next thought was why he's a couple of kilometers up in the air and falling... without a parachute. Now he only did weed once in his lifetime, when he was in high school, but he never got _this_ high. And it actually felt pretty real, so you can't really blame him for wetting himself. He didn't know how to take all this in, his heart however did, it practically shut down.

This was the unnatural end of Jimmy's normal life, by a heart stop 2.5 kilometers up in the air…

Oh yeah, his lifeless body continued falling down till it hit the surface of the lake below in terminal velocity causing his carcass to shatter upon the impact. I guess a heart stoppage wasn't such a bad way to go.

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.

.

There are infinite number of parallel worlds out there, but only one Little Garden. In all those worlds and dimensions are numerous amounts of heroes blessed by gods and deities with phenomenal talents; those are called Gifts.

However, isn't it such a shame that their talents are wasted in their worlds? They are just left there to rot in boredom where they don't find an equal. A gem needs to be polished before it shines brightly and that is what those heroes needed.

As such, the summoning system was created. By summoning those heroes to the Little Garden where challenge hides in every corner, they are able to get the most out of their Gifts and reach their potential.

There are rules though, certain conditions need to be met in order for the summoning to succeed.

The heroes must be Gifted.

The heroes must be seeking a challenge.

The heroes must be willing to leave their previous life and world behind.

However, no system is without its faults. A failure or malfunction could always occur, especially at the early stages. One certain malfunction is the late Jimmy, said malfunction will be discussed right this moment at this exact place.

A room filled with the most powerful Gods and great people, ones with the brightest minds in the Little Garden. Everyone had a grim look donning their faces.

The meeting was supposed to start a couple of minutes ago but only the deafening silence was willing to speak.

That was until one young man decided to get it over with. "So…" he began "You suppose the system needs a revision?" he asked.

No one said anything for the first couple of moments.

Then as if they practised this beforehand they all spoke at the same time.

"Naaah."

"It worked fine."

"Yeah just as envisioned."

"Well it's kind of his fault for not being able to survive."

"Yeah true."

"If you can't live through that then you're not welcome here."

' _Wow, not a speck of remorse'_ the young man sweatdropped.

* * *

[1] Ghost or spirits of the dead.

* * *

 **Alright so… I liked the idea of Izuru Kamukura from the Danganronpa game, however we rarely see him there and when we do he's all apathetic. I thought 'Maybe he'd change if he's sent into a world that's not boring?' And this is how I came to this idea. However, even if he came here he'd still be the 'silent guy' who doesn't talk, which is boring to write about.**

 **That's when I got the idea to make him less apathetic but nonetheless bored. There will be an explanation in the future to why he's changed but for now this is it.**

 **About the 'Extra' thing, in this chapter I tried to change the way the characters receive their letter and their intros so as to not shamelessly copy paste out of the light novel. That's when I had to think of many ways to receive the invitation, the fortune cookies was one of them. Though it didn't make sense to have one of the characters just randomly eat fortune cookies, I then thought it'd be funny if someone completely unrelated got summoned and that's how the Extra came to life.**


	2. Chapter 2: Goodbye Questions

***SPLASH***

Izuru swam to the shore, 3 figures behind him. He ignored everything, from his wet clothes which became somewhat heavier after absorbing water to the curses which he could hear behind him. He reached the shore without even noticing, his mind was somewhere else.

Everywhere around him, sight unnaturally beautiful. So much green that it feels unreal. Sky so clean you can eat off it. ' _Is this what the world would look like without humanity's iron obelisks of industry and civilization?'_ Now that he's done viewing the scenery, time to think about how he came here. 'This is too real to be a hallucination, having a hallucination with all my senses is as unlikely as seeing a crab grow fins and swim through the air all while smoking a cigarette.' If not a hallucination what is it then?

' _Simple, this is reality.'_ After coming to a conclusion, Izuru finally noticed his heart throbbing wildly. He put a hand on his chest as if to confirm the sensation. This feeling, he knew what it is, it's just that he never felt it before. ' _Excitement, still this is what I've been looking for. This is what I've been hoping for!'_

So, after confirming that he's not in his old world any more and after confirming his feelings about it, he took the first step into exploring this new wo-

"Wait, you there" a voice behind him called.

' _Oh yeah'_ He turned around to see his skydiving partners, 3 people + 1 cat, two of which are girls who were quite young. It appears that the guy of the group was the one who called him.

"You've been standing there the whole time, when are you going to introduce yourself?" It was a girl that spoke to him this time, she looked like the older of the two. She had blue eyes and long black hair tied with 2 red ribbons. Her clothing and authority resembled a noble's as it spoke of confidence.

"Kamukura Izuru, would you kindly reintroduce yourselves? I have water in my ears." He tilted his head sideways and let gravity do the work, further adding weight to his statement. ' _Not exactly a lie, I actually did have water in my ear. Though I still can hear perfectly and it was the fact that I was not paying attention to them is what caused this situation. But they don't need to know that.'_

The girl from before looked annoyed that she has to repeat herself "Kudou Asuka, at least you're more civilized than some certain savage." The now named Asuka introduced herself while wringing her dress dry. ' _Her annoyance may also have something to do with how uncomfortable the dress is, not enough room to move and less so with it soaked like that. Though that raises the question, why is she wearing it? Was she forced to? Then again women wear whatever they want to look good even though it might be uncomfortable for them.'_

' _Still she reminded me that I need to wring my clothes too if I want them to be dry soon.'_

"And I am Sakamaki Izayoi, known as the uncivilized savage and all the world's evil." It was the guy of the trio. Blond hair, amethyst eyes, wearing a Gakuran with a shirt underneath, yellow tennis shoes and ends it all with headphones. He spoke in a joyful mocking tone, full of arrogance? Confidence? Well it's too early to decide. He gives the vibe of someone looking down at others.

We all moved our eyes on the third individual. A girl, looks the youngest of our group. Short brown hair kept back with a hair clip, eyes of the same color, only special thing about her way of dress is the pair of long leather boots. She was currently staring at her cat seemingly not paying attention. It seems however that the message has been received. "Kasukabe Yō" and that's all she said.

"Well it's been nice knowing you guys" Izuru began to walk away, ready to explore this new wor-

"Wait!" screamed a feminine voice, Asuka.

"Why?"

"What do you mean why? We're all stuck in this together we need to discuss what happened and how we're going to go about it!"

Izuru, who has been turning his back to the trio, tilted his head back and looked them over his shoulder. "We've been teleported into a different world, there is nothing to discuss." They all looked at him seriously. It seems they've all been thinking the same thing, it's just that they were afraid to say it out loud without confirmation. Izuru took the silence as a cue to continue "Listen," he gave his back to them again "something like this, a different world, something special, I've been looking forward to as long as I can remember… You guys, feel the same way." The letter, it stated ' _Put family, friends, wealth and all the world aside.'_ We've all been chosen, we've all wanted to come here. Even though it meant discarding everything you had.

With that said he was now free to go with what was planned, how thrilling it would be to explore this mystical worl-

" **WAIT!"**

' _Okay this is just ridiculous.'_ Izuru face planted mentally. He craned his neck almost mechanically and glared at the perpetrator while fighting his twitching eyebrow "Did you really have to show up at this moment?"

He turned his head to the one who's been not so sneakily observing us. Oh he knew, judging by their poised reaction, the trio noticed as well.

The one who called him appeared to be an attractive young woman with long blue hair, red eyes and a rather… questionable outfit. It consists of a black collar with frills, a thigh length black vest, red miniskirt, shoes matching the color of her miniskirt and large wrist cuffs. She finishes it all off with black stockings supported by garters. Oh yeah she also has rabbit ears on her head.

' _Is she like one of those people, what do you call them…'_

"""A cosplayer?"""

' _Yeah that.'_

The rabbit lady seemed shocked by the assumption "C-cosplayer, me?! Kuro Usagi isn't a cosplayer, it's rude to assu-" she had to stop to dodge being crushed like the poor tree which she was standing in front of, courtesy of a specific uncivilized savage. "W-wait what's the meaning of this?!"

' _Okay so maybe the blonde's attitude is more confidence than arrogance.'_ mulled Izuru seeing the result of Izayoi's punch.

"Payback."

"For what?!"

"Making us wait." The blonde continued chasing the self-proclaimed Kuro Usagi.

The others seemed to want to have a piece of the action as well as they sprang into action, one of them literally. Specifically Yō hopped on all fours like a feline, jumping higher and moving faster than a human should.

"Hii! Not you too!" shrieked a specific bunny running for her life

"Don't forget about me." Asuka's turn " **Stop!** "

Kuro Usagi who's been running away from, in her opinion, 2 crazy children suddenly twitched for a second. It looked like a shock went through her body. She tried to continue running away but only her upper body followed her will, her legs not moving, which caused her to fall face first onto the ground.

Now cornered by 3 problem children, from her position the sun cast shadows on their face made them only more menancing. It's time to dish out some pain and by the looks of how the blonde is cracking his knuckles, the rabbit isn't going to have a good time.

While the trio were busy pulling on the rabbit's ears, Izuru had time to think about what just happened, mainly on what the three did. ' _They really weren't kidding when they said "extraordinary talents". Izayoi's talent or "Gift" is supernatural strength, speed and probably endurance. It kind of matches his personality. In Yō's case it'd be easy to put it in the same criteria as Izayoi's but it's different. She was moving in a feral way, just like the cat in her arms would if it wasn't so lazy. In any way it has something to do with animals. Asuka on the other hand is more complicated, she herself didn't do anything but order Kuro Usagi to stop so it has to have something to do with words.'_

* * *

After quieting down (Which was by no means a short process), Kuro Usagi had us sit down and listen to her lecture about this world. I stayed standing though as my clothes were not completely dry yet.

Long story short, according to her words. Yes we have been teleported into a different world and it's called the Little Garden which is place where we can participate in 'Gift Games'. You have to put something on stake, she compared it to poker. You have chips and you place them on the line, if you win you get something and if you lose you lose your chip. The purpose of these 'Gift Games' is for Gift bearers to have fun! Then she proceeded to tell us that the chips can be anything including our lives and Gifts and her previous point about having fun became _somewhat_ weaker.

There are different kinds of Gift Games. The smaller ones are proposed by shopkeepers or just normal people with the consent of the opponent. The bigger ones however require you to register beforehand and to be in a Community.

Which leads to the next point, Communities. A Community like an organization you work for, a society or a team. You can see it as different things but it's pretty much a bunch of people working together and forming a group. A Community consists of a name and a flag. A Community can be as small as a shop or as big as a country. It's apparently important to be in one and I understand why. It's more trustworthy to make a deal with someone with a reputation than someone with no name. Kuro Usagi has been really kind and offered us a place in her Community with all the goodness in her heart.

Oh yeah, this 'Little Garden' has Gods, Deities, Demon Lords and no guarantee for survival. Nothing serious.

Kuro Usagi is apparently a supporter of "Learn by doing" as she suggested that we take part in a newbie-friendly Gift Game of her. She then summoned a table from nowhere with a snap of her fingers and that lead to the current situation.

"Alright," Kuro Usagi pulled a deck of cards and spread all the cards facedown "we'll play using these cards. The rules are simple. You have to pick a face card and you have one try. It's your first taste of a Gift Game so you don't have to put a Chip on the line. But if you insist to have something then it could be your pride." the last line was said with a smug look.

"Are there any specific means to do this?" asked Asuka.

"As long as you don't break the rules and believe me I will know if you cheat thanks to being a Moon Rabbit as my eyes and ears are connected to the Garden's hub."

"What do we get if we win?" this time it was Yō's turn to ask a question.

Kuro Usagi put a finger on her cheek, thinking for an answer "Hmm, how about this? If you win I'll follow one order of your choosing."

"Oho?" Well this caught Izayoi's attention "Anything?" followed by his question his eyes centered on something.

We all followed his gaze to meet Kuro Usagi's … assets. Needless to say we all understood what he was implying. Gotta applaud him for his honesty.

It took the person herself 2 more seconds to figure it out, she immediately covered her chest "N-nothing indecent though!" _'If she's that embarrassed about showing her body then why wear such... provoking clothes?_ _Then again women wear whatever they want to look good even though it might be uncom- wait I think I've already gone over this already.'_

The girls gave Izayoi looks that spoke 'Scum' and 'Enemy of all women'

"Relax I'm just kidding." He waved his hand trying to dismiss what he said. Keyword: Tried. They still continued giving him the same look. "Anyway let's start this shall we?"

"Okay!" With another snap of her fingers she summoned a scroll "This is Geas Roll, in it are the rules and winning or losing conditions for the Gift Game. You should read it carefully, it could mean the difference between winning and losing."

 **GIFT GAME NAME: "Recruiting"**

 **List of Participant(s):**

 ***Sakamaki Izayoi**

 ***Kudou Asuka**

 ***Kasukabe Yō**

 ***Kamukura Izuru**

 **Clearing Condition(s):**

 ***Draw a face card from the deck on the table**

 **Clearing Method(s):**

 ***One draw per player**

 **Defeat Condition(s):**

 ***In case of surrender, or when the players become unable to fulfill**

 **the Win Condition mentioned above.**

 **Oath: Respecting the above rules, the players participate in this Gift Game.**

 **[Thousand Eyes] Seal**

"Sounds simple enough" said Izayoi, he was the one holding the Geas Roll "But first, let me inspect these cards. We have to make sure you aren't cheating."

"Sure, go ahead."

I almost felt bad at how easily she was tricked but then I remembered that I wasn't the one who did it. Still she is pretty naive if she didn't think about this. And by this I'm referring to how everyone is using his own way to mark, remember or recognize the cards.

Kuro Usagi seemed blind to that as she stated "Okay, let's begin!"

Seeing as no one was willing to go first, Izayoi volunteered. He walked to the table. No one said anything for 5 seconds, a sense of suspense is in the air. Kind of like cowboys in the start of their shoot-outs.

The silence was broken when Izayoi slammed his hand on the table causing cards to fly all over the table. Yō and Asuka took the chance to pick up face cards which went face-up thanks to Izayoi's stunt.

Kuro Usagi, not expecting this was flabbergasted "W-wait this isn't allo-"

"I didn't break any rules." the blonde shrugged "It's your fault for leaving such a loophole."

Kuro Usagi kept opening and closing her mouth, trying to retort but not finding any words. "Still! Izayoi-san hasn't won yet!" Finding a small hope that she didn't get completely outsmarted.

' _No.'_

"Or have I?" He turned the card face-up, it was a king. "Sorry to disappoint Kuro Usagi, but I memorized every card." adding even more insult to injury "It's your fault again for letting me inspect the cards!"

Kuro Usagi was down in the dumps, here she was trying to teach the newbies something only to get schooled herself. She then remembered something, she snapped her neck upwards at the farthest person. It's easy to forget him as he isn't a problem child as the others. "Still! Izuru-san hasn't won yet!" A tiny bit of her pride returned seeing that she isn't completely destroyed by children.

I felt 4 gazes on me, I guess it's my turn "Oh my, you put me in quite a pickle Sakamaki-san." He really did, the order of the cards is in chaos now and furthermore Yō and Asuka took the only face-up face cards.

The blonde shrugged "Tough luck," not sounding sorry at all "show us what you got."

' _Funny that you mention that.'_ Izuru paced to the table, he looked at all the cards. All the face-up cards are non-face. The trio already managed to get a face card each which means there are still 9 face cards in here. Izuru started pointing at each facedown card and muttering something. The 4 onlookers stepped closer to him to hear what he was saying. "... moe. Catch a tiger by the toe…" only to nearly face vault.

There were different reactions.

"Ho?"

"Really?"

"What do you think Calico?"

"Don't tell me he'll actually…"

The last one was by a certain rabbit who's thinking about the worst case scenario (for her)

"... Eeny, meeny, miny, moe." He stopped on one facedown card, pulled it up and turned it around. It's a Jack of Spades. "I guess luck is on my side."

"You are an interesting one…" The guy made a comment as if judging my worth.

"That's certainly one way to go about it."

"It seems you were right Calico."

Kuro Usagi, laid on the ground in a perfect Pose of Supplication. Staring at the ground with her back full of shame. "Izuru-san … wins … as well."

Instead of waiting for her to recover Izayoi just changed the subject "Anyway Kuro Usagi, you'll do anything I say."

"L-like I said nothing sexual."

"It's a shame but I want an answer. Is this world fun?"

' _Oh I can already tell it's going to be fun'_

* * *

 **Well... that's the 2nd chapter done. Yeah... about the 'somewhat' long delay. I'd be lying if I said I have no time to work on the story because I have. But I guess the little free time I have is just spent on other things. This story will continue, I don't know how fast I'll be posting but I'll try my best. Got to say though, after reading many fanfictions and now writing one myself. It's pretty darn hard. I have to keep 7 tabs open the whole time for research, anime, novel, wiki and one to make sure I'm using the correct words.**

 **This chapter was planned to be longer, long enough to show the difference from this and canon. I know what you're thinking, all I've been doing is recite the beginning of the novel/anime and add Izuru in it with a couple of lines and I understand. I want to punch myself because of how much of the things I already did similar to the canon. That's why I skipped some parts and made the introduction shorter than it could've been without (hopefully) making it look like I'm writing it half-assed. The beginning is a necessary evil. Consider it a way for you (and me) to familiarize with the writing style. Sometime it's from the narrator point of view and other time is from Izuru's.**

 **I also did some minor changes to Chapter 1. Nothing really noteworthy just some spelling mistakes and maybe an extra word or two.**

 **That's it for now, if you spot a mistake or have something to say PM me or whatever.**


	3. Chapter 3: Goodbye xx xxxxx

Kuro Usagi took the lead and the four summoned teenagers followed her, well three remained after the blonde problem child said something about visiting the edge of the world, ditching the group afterwards.

That went unnoticed by Kuro Usagi, who was busy telling the four trivial information at the time. So by the time they reached their destination, the outer gates, it lead to this predicament.

"Umm? Where might Izayoi-san be?" inquired the rabbit.

"Oh that uncivilized barbarian? He said something about the edge of the world and took off. Honestly I'm kind of glad he left, he looked like a womanizer and a personality to boot." huffed the noblewoman.

"Oh? And may I ask why _nobody_ informed me about that?"

"He told us to not tell you." replied Yō in a monotone.

Kuro Usagi gave her a look that said 'I'm not convinced' for a moment then she directed her gaze to Asuka, silently asking her to answer the question as well.

"Well you looked like you enjoyed giving us a tour guide so much that I would've felt bad if I interrupted you."

Kuro Usagi gave her the same gaze, this time 2 seconds longer then she shifted her eyes to the ebony-haired boy? I guess he qualifies as a man?

"What about _you_?" she pointed at Izuru.

* * *

So after completing the game, Kuro Usagi said she'd take us to the outer gate of the Little Garden, which I assume is one of those domes. Still there is something weird about her and I'm not talking about the tail and ears. The way she explained everything to us, the way she invited us to her 'Community' sounded so … desperate. It looks like she is hiding something from us, I can't sense any malevolent intent from her and she doesn't look like she has the power to summon us.

Which leads to the next point, why were we summoned? While I've read many stories about people summoned to a fantasy world in order to become heroes and save the kingdom, fiction and reality are different. Well it doesn't sound solid seeing as how my reality turned out to be, what I'm trying to say is that I don't think we've been summoned for some cliché reason. Aah this is frustrating, it's the first time I have this many unanswered questions inside my head.

My thoughts were cut off stopped when an accusing finger pointed at me saying "What about _you_?"

It looks like Kuro Usagi wasn't in a good mood, I have no idea why. I gave Asuka and Yō a look asking what happened. All I got were Yō's lips saying ' .Along.' and Asuka making the throat slash gesture with her whole hand meaning 'Don't fuck up.'

"Umm? Excuse me?" well I'm kind of disappointed in myself that I couldn't come up with something better and it looked like I wasn't the only one, Asuka shook her head while Yō facepalmed.

It seems that Kuro Usagi isn't pleased with my answer. In fact she's very angry judging by the flush creeping on her face, which seemed to spread to her hair as well? Is that supposed to happen when you you get angry or are my eyes playing tricks on me? I figured out that they weren't after rubbing them together and that Kuro Usagi's hair did turn pink.

"That stupid problem child! Jin-bocchan, please take care of those three while I bring that idiot back before he kills himself fighting a god!"

And she ran away, no rather jumped away an incredible distance in one hop. I mean you'd expect rabbits to jump high but this isn't this a little too much? I heaved a sigh, I should really get used to the unusual.

It seems I wasn't the only one impressed. "Wow, rabbits sure can jump."

"Well Moon Rabbits in the Little Garden are quite gifted as they are nobles, not only in strength but also in authorities. But I digress, if you'd follow me, I'll take you to somewhere I can answer your questions over a drink or meal." a young boyish voice stated.

Ah Jin Russel, a young boy with curly hair and an oversized robe 2 sizes above his own. Kuro Usagi calls him using the suffix 'bocchan' which means 'young master', a suffix used for young people which displays a little respect while also staying somewhat informal. It seems that he someone of importance, at least higher ranking than her.

We followed Jin inside the dome, I expected lights and I got what I expected, except a different kind. I didn't expect to see _sunlight_ from a closed off dome.

Seeing our surprise Jin decided to explain "It's see through from inside, it's made that way to protect creatures that can't handle sunlight directly."

Ah I see, like vampires and the trolls from that book about short people?

"You mean like vampires?" it seems Asuka had the same line of thought.

"Yeah like vampires." saying it like it's the most normal thing in the world, well it might actually be the most normal thing here for all I know.

Still the city is quite a beauty, it looks medieval with all the stalls yet modern with the way the buildings are structured. Sturdy brick houses next to each other. It's a charming site, giving a modern and medieval vibe at the same time. Most of the people are also dressed in unusual garb for the 21th century, or maybe it's us who are alien?

The citizens here were different. While a multicultural city isn't unheard of, the races in here were _a little bit_ different. From cat-people to dog-people to lizard-people and back to the normal humans. They weren't kidding when they said that many different creatures live in the Little Garden. All of them are living here together and I don't see any signs of discrimination. There is a cat-woman over there buying fruit from a human and they were treating each other normally, wait is that human flirting with her?

It also appears that everyone understands each other.

Wait a minute, does everyone here speak Japanese? How are we actually communicating with each other, with Jin and Kuro Usagi I mean. They don't look Japanese, Yō and Asuka sure do, Izayoi not so much but his school gakuran kind of hints at him living in Japan. Am I even speaking Japanese?

I'll stop dwelling on it for now. I'll ask later seeing that we reached our destination, a 'restaurant-café' which I suppose is a mix of a restaurant and a café. The banner on top is illustrating 6 marks that are supposed to depict scars.

We took our seats and Jin gestured for us to take a look at the menu, I opened the menu and I figured something out. I can read it. Was it Japanese? No. Was it any of the many languages I've learned? No. Do I understand what it says? Yes. This will require further research.

The contents of the menu were very … how do I say it? Normal? There is nothing wrong with normal but I for some reason can't help but be disappointed. Burger, pizza, soup, fish, pasta, spaghetti, salad and different kinds of steak such as beef, pig, goat or bison. Oh that last one is interesting, never had buffalo meat before.

Of course there were different sections for desserts and drinks, but the reason I was looking at the main menu was because … I'm actually pretty hungry, mainly because I skipped breakfast. My plan of action was to mess around in the academy then order a delivery from different places and put it on the academy's tab. I did that once, Daichi informed me the day after that the incident caused the staff members to play a game of 'Who dun it?' for two hours before giving up on finding the culprit.

Naturally I found that amusing and was planning on doing it again if it weren't for being summoned into a whole different world.

After we all put down the menus a cat-girl maid came to take our orders. Alright I'll need to pay attention and not tone out the conversation as I've been doing that a bit too much today.

"Welcome! Are you ready to order?" the cat maid asked us.

I can understand her, that's one thing out of the way. But can she understand me?

"I'll take black tea." Asuka ordered first.

"Ah, same here." Jin added hastily.

"Green tea.' Yō's turn

Before it was my turn, the cat on Yō's lap meowed something which caused the maid to write something down.

"Alright, 3 tea sets and a nekomanma **(1)** "

"You can understand what Calico is saying?" Yō was mildly surprised, this being the biggest reaction she showed so far besides falling down a couple of thousand meters from the sky, which to be honest is _somewhat_ understandable

"Oh of course I do~, I belong to the feline race and I have to say that this gentleman has a wonderful looking fur~"

It was 'Calico's' turn to reply, this time I channeled my internal Ultimate Animal Ecologist to try and understand what Calico is saying.

"Meow, mamamya mya ma mo meow"

Yeah it's not working. Still it doesn't take a genius to understand that he's flirting with her judging by the flush on her cheek and the way she covered her mouth in embarrassment. I can tell she's not really that good with smooth talkers.

"How about you sir?'' she asked hiding her embarrassment by changing the subject ''What would you like to order?"

And it's finally my turn "Bison steak, medium-rare please."

…

…

Yes I know you all ordered drinks, yes I know I ordered bison meat and yes I know that it sounds weird for me to be the only one ordering food, the cat not counting. But do you have to make it so awkward? Currently everyone was staring at me with a weird look even that cat is giving me a look stating 'You what?'. The maid recovered the fastest, jotting down my order and leaving with a 'I'll be right back!'.

At least I now know that I can communicate with other races, or at least the 'feline' race, guess I can't call them cat-people now. Still there was something important mentioned there, this is also a good chance to get rid of the looks they're giving me.

"Yō, is your Gift perhaps talking to animals?"

Granted I knew there was more to it than that but let's start simple.

"Ah" she faltered a bit, not expecting the sudden attention she got on her. I get the feeling she isn't the social type "Yes, that's part of it."

" _Any_ animal?" Asuka exclaimed.

"Well, it worked for every animal so far, from birds to dogs to cats." she pointed at the cat licking his paw on her lap with the last statement.

"Wow, you have such a wonderful ability Kasukabe-san, I'm quite envious of you." Asuka plastered an envious small on her face, one that didn't look good on her. Does she have some dislike for her Gift?

"Still, to have such an ability is quite handy in the Little Garden. Sometimes it's very hard to communicate with the different races and get a point across."

Oh, he just said something important. This is the moment to ask what I've been contemplating. "About that Jin, I have a question…" I was about to continue when the maid brought the drinks and nekomanma. She left them on the table and left while saying that my order would take a bit longer to make which is understandable.

This calls for an experiment "How does communication work here? How are we actually understanding each other? In the cases of Asuka and Yō we all come from Japan so it's reasonable. But how about you? How do we understand you or how does everyone talk to each other despite the diversity of races?"

Jin slumped down a bit with each question, it seems confidence is not his strongest suit. "W-well, I haven't really thought about that…" he paused to think "Language has always been second nature so I don't really think about it." It makes sense, normally people don't think about the trivial stuff like that. Kind of like when you don't notice something until you lose it.

"However," Jin continued "I do know that all humans speak the same universal language and most seem to comprehend it, with the exception of some races that only speak their own language like animals. The feline race, as you saw, while able to talk in humanoid tongue, they still posses the ability to speak their own language." he finished it with a nod, as if to reassure himself.

I took all that information in, Jin answered more than the questions I asked him. Not that he knew that. The experiment as I called it were those questions, there was more to them than just getting the answers. It was a test. Mainly that I've spoken all of them in German yet nobody showed an outward reaction nor an inward and nobody commented about me suddenly talking in a completely different tongue.

As silence settled in while I was digesting what I just learned - speaking of assimilating I'd really rather assimilate food than information - Yō decided to strike a conversation, interested in her fellow female.

"Um, Kudou-sa-"

"Please call me Asuka."

"Well then, Asuka," she paused, as if to see how it rolls of her tongue. Satisfied, she proceeded "what about your Gift?"

At her inquiry Asuka grew slightly uncomfortable, she really disliked that subject didn't she? "U-uh, it's nothing that great to be honest, far from it, it's quite terrible."

"Still I'd like to know." Yō retorted not noticing that Asuka didn't want to disclose her information.

"Ahem," she let out a cough clearing her throat. "I guess it can't be helped."

"My Gift is mind controlling people." she let that hang, taking a sip from her black tea.

Mind control she says? It sure didn't look like it. "What do you mean by that?" I inquired.

She let out a sigh, not wanting to delve deeper "Well, I can make anyone do anything I want."

If that's the case then it's not mind control. Mind control, also known as brainwashing is either changing someone's beliefs or hypnotising a person. And none of those reason is identical to her description. Changing someone's beliefs takes a lot of time and even then they won't be subservient to you. Their views and moral code would change but that's it. Hypnosis is putting the mind in a trance where the person has focused attention with a vulnerability to suggestion. However, the hypnotized person won't do something they don't actually want.

The question still remains open, what exactly is her Gift? It's probably subjugating people to her will. Frankly, I'm delving too deep into this when it can just be explained as 'It's magic.' Nonetheless a part of me just wants to put it in a rational way to make it easier for me to fathom how it works.

 _Because I don't understand magic._

Magic, supernatural and wizardry are just fictional concepts. The closest humans can get to it is some simple eye illusion. Those terms are only used in fictional work such as books, movies and games for entertainment and as a way to project your imagination into something. While yes belief in and practice of magic did exist in the 'olden times', it can't be proven as all what is left are stories that might or might not be true. There is no magic, there are no wizards who throw fireballs or conjure elementals, there are no fire spewing dragons and Gods, Goddesses and mythology are just what they are, myths: Invented stories.

Yet despite all of that I stand here, in an illogical place, where the illogical things I just mentioned exist with probably even more illogical stuff hiding in the next corner. Sigh, it's going to be hard getting accustomed to this place. It's troublesome… but I don't regret it, this is truly what I wanted.

Unaware of my uncharacteristic inner turbulence they continued their conversation "I think it's a great ability Asuka." Yō was trying to reassure her fellow female.

Asuka just waved her away "You don't have to force yourself to say that. I know it's kind of a despicable power, more akin to witches."

The brunette shook her head "No, I really mean it. It's not about what the power is, it's how you use it and I think you can use it to achieve great things."

Somewhat surprised, she shook her head in order to get her bearings back "Thank you, Kasukabe-san" she spoke with a soft voice.

Silence descended not for the first time. All that could be heard on the table was the sound of people sipping their tea. Trying to get the conversation going, Asuka was thinking about a subject when she finally remembered something they neglected.

"Oh, yeah." the raven haired noble started "Now that I think about it, you've never showed us your Gift Kamukura-san."

Yō perked her ears up "Yeah now that you mention it, Kamukura-san is always standing on the sidelines. Sometimes you forget he's even here." not realising that the last part could be taken as an insult.

"Y-yeah I kind of wanted to ask that too."

Well it's not that I'm actually hiding it, just that nobody asked about it. "Well, I actua-"

I was stopped from spilling the beans as an ambrosial aroma reached my sense of smell. The action drew confused looks from Asuka and Jin, it seems Yō also noticed it, both of us having enhanced sense of smell.

The maid arrived at our table with a plate of bison meat. "Here you go," she placed the plate on the table "here is your order, bison steak! Have a wonderful meal." she turned to serve another customer who just came in.

Finding this piece of heaven more interesting than explaining my ability, I disregarded their questions for inspecting this fine slice of the Promised Land. I'm being too dramatic? It can't be helped, I'm hungry. While I can hold back my hunger longer than any human could, why would I if it's unnecessary?

It's time to dig in. I took hold of my two comrades in this battle, a fork and a knife. I use the fork to hold my enemy in place while using the blade to cut my adversary in pieces. Juice poured from the steak the moment the fork stabbed into it further increasing the appeal of its enticing, mouthwatering appearance.

I brought a morsel to my mouth, very slowly. All while closing my eyes, just like those food commercials. There's no fun in it if it isn't melodramatic.

And I bit into it.

An explosion of flavour followed, it tasted _divine_. It was absolutely tantalizing. The meat was excellently cooked into medium rare, just like I asked. It was also extremely juicy, chewy and I guess meaty? The red wine sauce only added to the aftertaste. The buffalo itself tastes a lot like beef, though the meat is different. It's more chewy as its density is higher than beef thus granting me a more satisfying, filling meal. I chewed on the meat very slowly to savor the taste, when I was done I mentally waved my formidable opponent away as he took his last journey, into my stomach.

I opened my eyes to see 3 face, each displaying a different reaction from the other. Jin was fidgeting a bit, looking at everything except me and my plate. Asuka was gulping, visibly holding herself back, trying to maintain her air of nobility, it's not working out for her that well.

Yō was … drooling? Her saliva cascading on her cat which to his dismay was locked in a grip of steel whom his master seemed to unconsciously exercise. Unable to escape he accepted his fate with flattened ears. Here I thought I was being over the top, she took the expression 'mouthwatering' too literally.

Her gaze was fixed on the chunk of meat on my plate, never wavering. She looked not unlike a lion that's about to jump on his prey and devour it, albeit a cuter one.

I stabbed my fork into another slice then I moved it up in the air. Yō followed the piece of meat with her fixed gaze. It was like she's a homing missile, though instead of heat-seeking it's meat-seeking. I then moved the stabbed chunk left, Yō also turned to face it directly. This time right, same result.

This is oddly amusing. However we have to up the difficulty. With inhuman speed I moved my fork in different directions. Left. Right. Up. Down. Right. Left. Down. Up. Left. Up. Down. Right. With each move she followed it all the same, even keeping up with my speed. I then continued in the pattern of up, down, left, right. And so on. I kept it for 8 seconds then abruptly stopped, keeping the meat in the middle. Yō however continued looking at the same pattern that she unconsciously began to follow.

I wasn't the only one who considered this entertaining. As Asuka was trying to hold back her giggle and Jin was having trouble deciding whether to laugh or be polite and hold it back.

"Want some?" I decided to stop the teasing (read: torturing) and spare her a bit.

Yō swiftly bobbed her head 3 times unable to hold herself back any longer.

I extended the fork to her and she bit into the meat with a 'Hum'. I also gave her the tissue provided by the establishment to clean off her face. The purpose of the tissue was probably to clean your mouth after eating from any sauce that remained on your face not cleaning the face of an acquaintance who happened to drool at the sight of your meal.

Still Asuka seemed surprised by my action judging by the wide-eyes and the small flush she sprouted. Did she not think I was a gentleman? No, that's not it.

"You want some?" I asked same question, holding within my fork another piece of meat.

She immediately became flustered "A-ah n-no that's something only l-lovers do, an indire…" she mumbled that last part looking away, her face becoming beet red.

…

Really?

Is that what got her so concerned? Shaking my head at her frivolous worries. I stabbed the piece of meat with the knife this time and I presented her the same offer. "How about now?"

"A-ah um yes, thank you." she used one hand to keep her hair from interrupting as she bit into it with a soft 'Hum'. Her eyes went wide again when she started chewing on the meat, she expressed her assessment when she was done with ingestion "Wow this really tastes as good as it smells."

I presented Jin a piece as well, not wanting to lock him out of the group.

He however declined fighting a small blush as well "N-no thank you, I don't want." Well he looked like he wanted, whatever it's his loss. "I-I don't swing that way."

And I forced it inside his mouth "Cheeky boy."

That turn of events was apparently humourous for Asuka and the now clean Yō who both were giggling, this time not even trying to stifle it.

A loud new voice made its way to our table "My, my, if it isn't Jin Russel from the 'John Roe' **(2)** Community, you're embarrassing as ever!"

"Galdo Gasper from 'Fores Garo', and our Community is called 'No Name', you'd do well to remember that."

I don't know, but something tells me those two are really close friends. Still it's somewhat of a surprise how much venom Jin's tone conveyed, a stark difference to his image of the polite boy.

'Galdo Gasper', huh? Said man excused himself as he _politely_ sat down and by politely I mean he took seat with a loud 'thunk' not even asking for permission. This man can be described in one word, huge. This man was towering 2 heads above us while sitting and is probably 3 times the size of Jin. He was dressed elegantly in a suit, a complete mismatch with his demeanor and not to mention that he stinks of alternative motives.

Oh, he also stalked us the whole time the moment we entered. He mainly kept watch from a place away from earshot yet still within visible view. A couple of people, what looked like his subordinates approached him and he gave them orders as he sent them away as soon as possible. He's probably some bigshot here.

All in all, if this guy were to live in my world he'd get the 'Ultimate Unable to Not Hate' with no competition, he's that impressive. The bulky man is pretty much a representation of everything that makes you hate a person, from the personality, the fake smile, those nails and holy shit what's up with that hair! He could easily match a western politician with that hairstyle.

"Oh forgive me, unlike someone else I'm too busy a person to remember all the insects I come across. I came here hearing you summoned new talents and so I thought I'd give them a look. And I have to say Jin Russel here doesn't deserve people like you, don't you think?" he addressed us with that last question.

"You come in here, sit down without permission and you haven't even introduced yourself to us, at least Jin is polite, I'd say he's currently winning." Asuka, our voice of reason, spoke for us.

"Ah my apologies, where are my manners? My name is Galdo Gasper, leader of the Community 'Fores Garo', one of the most rising Communities in this district."

"And a bunch of barbarians." Jin continued.

Galdo was enraged with Jin's statement, so much that his features took on a feral look. His mouth ripped open and his wide eyes giving a clear view of his vertical slits is much like a wild beast just waiting to be unleashed. Is it me or does everyone here change appearances when they turn angry?

"Watch your mouth you little brat!" he snarled "You're in no shape to talk about your betters like this when your Community is on the verge of death."

"Hold on there." our voice of reason began "You've been leaving us in the dark about all of this, this however concerns us so I think it's about time you let the cat out of the bag."

"Very well, since little Jin here has understandably not informed you, I will. Active Communities in the Little Garden needs to have a 'Name' and 'Emblem' or 'Flag', whatever you want to call it. The 'Emblem' indicates that the area it's imprinted on is property of the Community that owns the 'Emblem'. For example this place has an 'Emblem'" he pointed at the flag with the six markings. "To expand your Community you have to bet your 'Emblem' in a Gift Game, just like how I did it with mine." he pointed on the 'Emblem' engraved on his suit with pride, a tiger-striped pattern. His pride is understandable seeing most of the stores and buildings in this plaza are decorated with the same pattern. Looks like he really is some bigshot.

Still this guy is a gold mine of information, he has no idea how much information he's giving us and best of all, he's nice enough to present his services for free! Hope he doesn't start bothering me after 30 days.

"Anyway," he continued "little Jin's Community suffered a loss under a Demon Lord losing both their 'Name' and the 'Emblem', the most essentials of a Community. Thus the shameful title 'No Name'."

For the next half hour he just kept on rambling about the story of the 'Calamity' that fell on Jin's Community and explaining the system of the Little Garden while slipping insults about Jin whenever possible. He's informative but he was beginning to get boring.

"I see." once again Asuka spoke, me and Yō opting to stay silent and listen "But I'm sure someone of your status didn't come here _just_ to inform us about all of this."

"Hah I'll be straight with you, I want the three of you and Kuro Usagi to join my community."

"Galdo Gasper! How dare you!" It's the first I've seen Jin show so much hate and judging by his personality, this almost never happens "If talking low of me and my Community was not enough, you also intruded on our sitting and are trying to steal the guests _we_ summoned by recruiting them into your chaotic mob?! I will not-"

"Shut up Jin Russel, you and your Community are a bunch of losers who are way too attached to the past. The only reason it's still alive is because you are indulging in Kuro Usagi's kindness while making her do all the work because you're an incompetent leader. No one is willing to join you so you summon these people and try to trick and deceive them into joining while hiding all the circumstances. The way I see it you're the bad person here, am I wrong?"

Jin was trembling and clenching his fists so hard that his knuckles turned white. For he had nothing to say to this. Everything that Galdo said was true, apart from maybe the trickery part. But he couldn't deny that for he did hide information from us to make sure we're not discouraged into joining the Community. It's also no wonder why Kuro Usagi seemed so desperate and so insistent on us joining her Community.

Their Community is after all in a _critical_ situation.

"So how about it? Would you join my Community?"

She did not even contemplate "No, I'm okay with Jin's Community."

"Same here," Yö raised her hand "I'm only here to make friends, circumstances are irrelevant."

"Ah in that case may I be your first friend? I've a feeling we can get along with each other."

I've been waiting for this for a while, those two are really close despite just meeting each other. Both of them want the same thing yet both are too socially awkward to say it out loud. It's kind of watching a romantic movie and being like 'Just make out already.' It seems we have to thank Galdo for somewhat presenting this opportunity.

It didn't take a long time for Yö to reply "Yeah, I feel the same way." accompanied by a small smile.

Galdo, being flat out ignored tried to draw the attention back to him "May I ask wh-"

"Listen, Galdo Gasper. I Kudou Asuka hail from a wealthy family of nobles. I left all my money, my status and my family to come here. Do you really think that money and property is in my interest?" she was not done yet "Besides, even if I'm interested in that, I'd rather not go join a group like yours. If the leader is this bad how would the rest of the Community be any better?"

Ouch, that stung.

Losing his pride must've hurt, as he was shaking, desperately trying to salvage the situation "M-miss I'd like you to reevaluate you-"

" **Silence!** "

Only to have his mouth forcibly closed by an invisible force, courtesy of Asuka's ability. It was correct in saying that it's more enslaving people to her will rather than mind control. Because Galdo seems to be actively trying to resist it yet his body won't budge.

"There are questions that need answers so be a good boy, **sit here and answer my questions.** You say you played a Gift Game against all the Communities to get the territory you have now right?"

Oh she's very sharp, a lot sharper than her outward image implies.

"Yes…"

"A Gift Game is where people bet their chips - which could be anything - on the game right?"

"Yes…"

"So tell me why any Community in their right minds would bet everything they have on the line? We've only just arrived here yet we understand how important a Community is. Even Jin here is trying his hardest trying to rebuild his Community. So why did Community after another agree to fight you risking one of the most essential necessity they have? **Would you** _ **kindly**_ **spit it out?**

Galdo was struggling the whole time but met the same result every time "By using blackmail and hostages, we kidnap people from the Community then we threaten them into joining us or accepting a Gift Game in our favor."

Asuka looked at him like he's a piece of dirt on a shiny new shoe. "You really are the lowest, what about the hostages?"

"We killed them."

That statement froze everyone, Asuka, Yö, Jin, the maid who was drawn by the quarrel and nearby people who noticed the discord.

It seems that the Little Garden isn't planning on giving us the best first impressions, from falling from the sky to this.

The dirt continued, obeying his order but this time he was more willing to spit it out "Little brats didn't stop crying about their mommies or how scared they are so we just offed them."

Asuka's voice grew cold "Well if you aren't the epitome of evil, meeting someone like you is a one in a million. I hope I don't experience such thing again. Is there some way for him to pay for his crimes?" her question was directed at Jin.

"Well as long as he doesn't escape the Little Garden the law will take care of him. Whether he leaves or not makes no difference here as 'Fores Garo' would be dismantled either way. It's nothing unheard of, but to think something like this happened this close…"

"Well then I'll just leave him be, trash like him would end in the dumpster either way." She snapped her finger releasing the Galdo from his chains.

He didn't waste an time, with a loud roar he immediately transformed into a beast. His tuxedo ripped apart, his muscles grew larger and striped fur started to grow on his body. Taking the form of what people would call a weretiger and knocking the table during the process.

Oh don't worry I saved my plate from falling by snatching it before he knocked the table. It's resting on my lap, safe from harm, begging to be eaten.

"You bitch! How dare you ensnare me! The leader of 'Fores Garo'!" he leapt at Asuka in an attempt to shred her to pieces.

"I won't allow it." only to be stopped by Yö who grabbed his arm and twisted it, throwing his body to the ground and pinning him using her's.

If Asuka was surprised then she didn't show it, this is all planned for all the onlookers knew.

"Face it kitty, you've lost, you confessed your sins in public and your Community will die out. Yet, you still have to pay for the crimes you committed personally. So how about proposal." she gave the downed weretiger a look filled with cold joy " .A Gift Game."

She let out a mirthless laugh "Oh how ironic it must be for you. You, who normally is the one forcing other people to play your game, are going to taste your own medicine."

* * *

Well… I guess I overestimated her edge. Don't get me wrong she's still pretty sharp for someone her age but she neglected some important things. Mainly-

"In the short amount of time I left you, you picked a fight with the leader of 'Fores Garo', the game is set up for tomorrow with no time to prepare, the game will also be held at the enemy territory AND worst of all, we have NO IDEA what the Gift Game will be!"

That.

After we were done with the fight, the crowd dispersed, some of them hurrying to spread the new information they got. We had to apologize to the cafè owners. They said we didn't have to pay for the damages, them being more than happy we threw filth like that out of their shop. However they did accept a sack of coins I gave them saying that Galdo 'accidentally' dropped this with pleasure. I also didn't forget to thank them for the wondrous meal.

So here we are, about three hours passed after entering the Little Garden, the sun's going down. It appears that was enough time for Kuro Usagi to locate Izayoi and bring him back. It seems that also something nice happened for she looked quite pleased when she returned with a plant in her hand. That happiness was short-lived after informing her of what occurred. She then started chastising Asuka, Yö and Jin. Me being excluded as I had the maid vouch for my innocence in what transpired.

The deal that was struck, also known as the Geas Rules, are that if the 'No Names' win, 'Fores Garo' admits to all the crimes. If they lose however, they have to stay silent about everything 'Fores Garo' did AND are going to do.

"Izuru-san are you listening?" queried Kuro Usagi, apparently done with the scolding. I gave her a nod.

"Alright, it's getting late, Jin-bocchan please go ahead of us. The Gift Game is tomorrow so I'll have their Gifts appraised alongside this water tree before returning to the Community."

A water tree, that is what the plant Kuro Usagi is holding called. It seems she and Izayoi found it when they were outside. Water seems to be an important resource here. Well it always has been an important resource, just that you had plentiful of it on Earth alongside pipe systems to transport it. That seems to not be the case here, it's not scarce, just expensive. But it seems that whatever that water tree does, it'll fix the water problem the No Names have.

Jin headed home accepting Kuro Usagi's proposal while we're going to have our Gifts appraised, I wonder how that will work.

Walking around like this still gives me a chance to explore and view the scenery. It's still reminiscent of the plaza we were in in terms of style. In fact the whole area appears to have the same approach design. Stone roads with stone buildings, it gives off a fancy ambience. Especially with the falling cherry blossoms.

"Cherry blossoms? They shouldn't be blooming during midsummer?"

"Midsummer? I thought it's fall." they both looked at the their fellow transported males.

"Spring here." he gave me a look "And I guess it doesn't take a me to figure out what season your's was."

"What gave it away?" I opened my arms giving him a mocking grin.

"Hmph it seems that confidence is no problem for you Barbarian-kun."

"A little ironic coming from you Princess."

They locked gazes on each other, crackling streamers of arcing lightning manifesting between their eyes. Those two really have a competitive streak with each other. Something like rivalry at first sight?

"Well," Kuro Usagi decided to explain "all of you come from a different time and dimension so no wonder a couple of things would be different. I guess the easy way to call that is parallel worlds. Incidentally, it's the beginning of summer here."

She suddenly turned facing us, signaling that we reached our destination. A shop with a Banner depicting two entities holding a sword facing each other. This is what Kuro Usagi called the 'Thousand Eyes' Community, incidentally the Gift Game we played also had that name on it.

We found that they're in the process of closing shop.

"Wai-" Kuro Usagi was interrupted by the clerk.

"No waiting dear customer, we're closing." the voice was flat, no changing her mind.

"Hey aren't you supposed to deal with your customers in a nicer way?!"

The clerk sighed "Fine, 'Highborn of The Little Garden'. May I have your Community name?"

"Well…"

"We're the 'No Names'." Izayoi spoke filled with pride.

"Which 'No Names' are you? May I perhaps see your 'Banner'?" she's doing this on purpose, she knows which Community Kuro Usagi belongs to.

"Well…"

The clerk scowled, angry that we wasted her time. She was about to close the door before something shot from inside with a loud "KUROSAGIIIIIIIII!" only to have that something slam into the rabbit sending both of to fly spiraling in midair, the momentum carrying both of them a couple of meters before they stopped.

When they did we had a clear view of the perpetrator, namely a small girl with pure white hair wearing something resembling a kimono. The small girl burying her head in the rabbit's chest enjoying the sensation.

* * *

We find ourselves sitting in a seiza position, facing the white haired girl inside the 'Thousand Eyes' shop. The shop looked from the inside the same as the outside, like a typical Japanese house ignoring the _very_ wide courtyard inside.

"Well, first of all I apologize for the rude treatment, that girl is honestly a stickler for rules and is inflexible with them. Introductions are a must, I am Shiroyasha, leader of the 'Thousand Eyes' whom base is located at the fourth gate. So you're the ones who were summoned. I have been helping Kuro Usagi with Community since the collapse. Think of me as a beautiful girl helping from the sidelines."

"We really appreciate everything you've done for us Shiroyasha-sama." Kuro Usagi bowed politely ignoring Shiroyasha's last statement.

Yö raised her hand "Question, what're those 'gates'?"

"Oho good question! The Little Garden is separated in 7 different layers, the gates indicate which level you're on. Here for example is the 7th gate, the lowest level and also where the weakest live. Not counting those who reside in the 'Edge of the World', where the owner of that tree lives." she pointed at the water plant set on the ground next to Kuro Usagi.

"And while we're talking about that who won the Gift Game?"

"Izayoi is the one who beat that snake god." she pointed to the blonde among us.

"Aho, and in what kind of Gift Game?"

"Ahaha…" she started nervously "a fight."

…

…

…

"Excuse me what?"

"He beat the snake in a fight barehanded. It's hard to believe, I know. I wouldn't have believed it either if I didn't witness it with my own eyes."

"For a human to beat a god..." she gave Izayoi a critical look "and without owning a Divinity."

So everyone was silent for a moment, contemplating on what to think about the blonde in this room who beat a god on his first day… in a fight… barehanded.

Yeah… I think it's more confidence than arrogance...

"Shiroyasha-sama you seem familiar with that snake god, someone you know?" quizzed Kuro Usagi.

"Know? Way more than that, I'm the one who granted him Divinity a couple of hundred years ago."

"Oh?" the blonde spoke for the first time since coming here "So you're stronger than that snake?"

"Fufu, why of course, I'm the Floor Master of the east. I'm the stronger than anyone in the eastern 4th gate and everyone underneath. I am after all the strongest Host." all I could hear was pride, pride and confidence. What she stated wasn't her opinion. It was a statement, a fact, the truth. And judging by the look on Izayoi's face, he took it to face value.

Then in fluid harmony, Izayoi, Asuka and Yö stood up looking towards Shiroyasha.

The message was unspoken but clear.

"Hoho you request a challenge from me? Very well, I'm bored filing paperwork anyways. However..." her voice turned solemn, she took out a card with the symbol of her Community on it "Are you requesting a Challenge or a Duel?" the card illuminated a bit of light which exploded into bright flash to the point where we had to shield our eyes.

When we opened them we found that we're in a complete different location. Everyone looked frantically in every direction trying to discern what happened and where they are.

The location is a snow field with a lake. Snowy mountains in the distance and a moon clearly visible in the sky despite it not being dark.

"Don't worry it's just a Game Board" standing in front of us, on her own is Shiroyasha. "Let me reintroduce myself, I am the 'Demon Lord of the White Night', the celestial spirit of the sun and the white night. Let me ask this one last time, do you request a _Challenge_ or a _Duel_?"

The message she's relaying to us is either 'Do you want me to give you a challenge and see if you can beat it? Or do you want to die?' coming from someone who mentioned having a world in their possession and calling it only a mere playing field. That they were outmatched would be the biggest understatement of the millennium.

The trio hesitated, both girls taking a step back in fear. Izayoi stayed firmly in his place, however it was but a facade judging by the cold sweat on his face and the slightest twitching of his fingers.

He spoke, giving in "You win this time, we'll let you test us for now." still cocky as ever.

"Why! Why do you keep doing this?! You caused so many trouble in the first day here! The fight with 'Fores Garo' and the Izayoi incident were not enough? What is it? Do you just enjoy seeing Kuro Usagi suffer?" she cried.

"""Yes.""" the tension completely disappeared. Kuro Usagi looked away deflated, probably angry at how much those kids had control over her since they were her only hope.

A loud cry resounded, grabbing the attention of everyone here. "What was that cry?"

"It's your challenge." stated Shiroyasha

The owner of the cry grew nearer till they became visible. It has the upper body of an eagle and a lower body of a lion. He landed on the ground and stood still, looking dignified.

"A Gryphon!" Yö spoke the name of this creature. She's being far more enthusiastic than anyone else here. Not to say that I wasn't interested in him, just that her feelings are more vibrant, a mix of admire and longing.

"The challenge is to stay on his back as he sails through the air, circling the lake's shore." The Demon Lord instructed "This is a real challenge, no joke. You're putting yourself in a risk in accepting this." she warned us "With that said, who wants to do it?"

"I will" it goes without saying that Yö is the one who said that.

She took a slow nervous steps to the beast "Um, hello I'm Kasukabe Yö."

It was almost unnoticeable but the beast's eyes widened in surprise, probably at the fact that a human can communicate with it.

He let out a growl, nobody understood what he said except Yö and Shiroyasha. The brunette responded with "My life." Now that didn't take a genius to figure out. Yö was betting her life on the line. Kuro Usagi and Asuka who is worried about her newest friend tried to stop her but were blocked by the Demon Lord.

"Wait." I spoke for the first time. I took off my scarf and handed it to her before she got on the gryphon. All while resisting quoting an old man in a cave. "Make sure to bring it back." From what I can tell, it's going to be really cold out there, she'll need something to keep her warm. I also sent the unspoken message of 'Don't die'.

She took it with a nod and a soft "Thank you." she turned around, putting it on and steeled herself. She got on the gryphon's back and held tightly. After a while the beast suddenly shot out like a bullet and soared through the sky. Something is weird about the way he flies though. I didn't notice this when he came flying but now I see that he's… running? He's not flying using his wings but he's using his legs to run on air not unlike what a normal animal would run on flat ground.

The speed is also extremely impressive, Yö is also praiseworthy for managing to stay on him. She only has to hold on for a few moments. It didn't take long for them to come back seeing how fast the gryphon is, not that he made it easier for her as he took very sharp turns and going up and down.

Still Yö hung on without letting go of the creature. They reached the end line, only then did Yö lose her balance but she regained herself before she fell down by walking on air… just like how the gryphon flew…

"I knew it, your ability is to imitate animals right?" The blonde came to the same conclusion as me, you'd really forget how sharp he really is with his personality.

"It's just a proof of our friendship." she didn't want to think that she's using the animals just to get abilities. Ah she looked my way "Ah thank you Kamukura-san, here's your scarf back." she presented me my scarf folded in her hands. I took it with a "You're welcome."

"Phew!" Kuro Usagi exclaimed wiping her forehead in a gesture to show relief "Please. Don't. Do. That. Ever. Again. Kuro Usagi almost had a heart attack."

"Oh don't worry about that Kuro Usagi. It's only the beginning." Izayoi tried to reassure her. It had the opposite effect.

Shiroyasha motioned for the gryphon to go away, he did that with a nod. "Congratulations Yö, may I ask how you got your Gift?"

"It was a gift from my father." she showed her necklace.

"Interesting…" Shiroyasha started checking the necklace out, flipping it over and over. "Very interesting design."

"Oh yeah!" Kuro Usagi perked "I almost forgot the reason we came here, since we're talking about Gifts I would want to ask if you could appraise them."

A bright light flashed again, when we opened our eyes we were back in the 'Thousand Eyes' shop. "Appraising? That's not my speciality, far from it… I might have something that can help though, consider it a prize for completing the challenge and a premature gift for your Community's revival."

With a clap four cards appeared in front each of us. Everyone picked his own card and started inspecting it. The cards had a different colours, Izayoi's is cobalt blue, Asuka's is wine red, Yö's is emerald green and mine is ebony black and contained a name on it.

"Oh G-Gift Cards, you shouldn't have Shiroyasha-sama!"

Each of them looked at their cards with quizzed expressions.

"Gift Cards? The hell's that credit card?"

"An identity card?"

"A birthday card?"

All three looked at me, oh not this again. Izayoi gave me a 'Waiting on you bro' look however both girls were giving me a _bit_ fiercer looks. Both of those relaying 'This time...Don' .Up.'

I let out a sigh at their antics, here we go.

"Does it work on Amazon?"

All I got were question marks from everyone and a snicker from Izayoi, well at least somebody got it. I'm getting better at this!

"W-wrong on all accounts… The card is a super-rare item that can store the manifestation of your Gifts such as Yö-san's Gift, making it easy to carry them around wherever you go!" She explained.

"6/10 Kuro Usagi. The Gift Card's formal name is 'Piece of Laplace', a fragment of omniscience, having infinite knowledge. Your name alongside the name of your Gift will be displayed on it, even the Community Emblem, but you don't have that yet. Even though it's nothing like appraisal, you can get how your gift works by looking at the name. It can also allow you to store whatever you want just like what Kuro Usagi said."

"Well so much for infinite knowledge." Izayoi showed us his card while laughing, on it is his name and under that is 'Code Unknown'.

"... That's impossible, there's nothing wrong with the Piece of Laplace. Such a thing never happened…" she continued to murmur her thoughts with her fingers on her chin.

Yö approached me eagerly "Kamukura-san, may I see your Gift please?" this got the attention of the others, including Shiroyasha who's done with mumbling. After all I've never used it when we attacked Kuro Usagi in the beginning, nor did I use it during the Galdo incident. The fact that I were interrupted when I was about to explain it only made it more mysterious.

Well… It kind of makes me uneasy showing them but they were going to find out anyway. Well one part… I flipped the card, showing her what's on the card with an apologetic smile.

"Umm, Kamukura-san?" that came out as a question "Where is your Gift?" well that was one "And who is Hinata Hajime?"

This got the others only more interested and confused. "Well the second one… That's my old name before I changed it." it would be too troublesome to tell the the whole story so I just put it simple and sweet. "The other one though…" I scratched my head in embarrassment I guess? "I don't have a Gift."

…

…

…

…

…

You would hear a pin drop with this silence.

""""WHAT!"""" and an eyebrow raise from Izayoi are all that I received after the silence

Shiroyasha was the first to recover, she didn't lose the intensity that she had though. She walked up to me pulled on my vest "What do you mean you don't have a Gift?! Are you joking? Do you think this is funny?" She jerked me closer to her with every question. To the point where Kuro Usagi had to intervene to separate us.

To say that the Demon Lord is angry would be an understatement. She was furious, but not at me, at herself. I get what she's feeling. She just summoned a normal human into a world of supernatural where being normal would only end up with death or being useless or the best of both worlds, a useless death. After all this world is brimming with creatures that could kill humans with just looking at them. She's obviously the ones who summoned us, from the way she spoke to us and from the Thousand Eyes seal in the Gift Game. Why she cannot send me back I have no idea but it appears she isn't capable of doing that, not that I'd want her to.

"I-it's fine Shiroyasha-sama, we will keep Izuru-san as a guest in our Community. I'm sure he'll be safe." Kuro Usagi caught on with the reason why the strongest Host Master was so agitated. The others also figured it out after recovering.

"Yeah Kamukura-san, have no worries we'll protect you." Yö tried to reassure me with Asuka nodding in agreement with what she said. Izayoi was just watching all of this with a flat face and a hidden interest.

"A-alright!" Kuro Usagi shouted in a forced cheerful tone trying to alleviate the tense atmosphere "You've all gone through a lot today and it's clear that everybody needs to take a rest. How about we just go back to our the Community for now and think about all of this later? Come let's go Izuru-san." she nudged me.

Ah they're all good people, very kind too. Though that kindness is also harsh and painful at the same time since…

"I'm not coming." I'm rejecting their compassion.

* * *

 **Footnotes**

(1) Nekomanma literally means kitty food, it refers to leftovers like rice and miso or anything from the night before. It's called that way because people used to give them to their pets.

(2) John Roe is a placeholder name for unidentified, anonymous or hypothetical parties.

* * *

 **Well… That was a chapter… huh?**

…

…

 **So how you guys doing?**

 **Would you look at this?! It's only been 1 month since the last chapter! It's almost like I'm getting better! Sorry that this chapter took a while. I wrote it in the span of two weeks, a tiny fragment every time to complete the whole picture. However the sooner good things come the faster they go (assuming you find my fanfiction good). For I have exams next week and to be honest I should be studying right now but I had to put out this chapter before the exams start otherwise It'd be delayed a lot.**

 **The bright side is after that is vacation. I'll be staying at home learning coding and other stuff. So by not going anywhere it means I have time to work on this.**

 **I've added a footnote section for some things might be hard to understand. If you don't understand something that has a footnote then just Ctrl + F and type the number, that way you can go down and back to where you were easily. I have no idea how many times I'll be using it but oh well.**

 **Anyway enough about my life, the story: This is the longest chapter and the one I'm most proud of writing yet. The parts at the end felt rushed I think but it kinda has to happen. I'm not going to have to explain .thing. But don't confuse that with me being lazy (even though I am). Everything will be explained in later chapters and I'll even add more stuff to it than canon.**

 **Speaking of canon I'll be finally throwing out the light novel, now only using it to check stuff and as a reference. The days of leaching off the novel are done! The world of the Little Garden will be explained in details for those who don't understand it yet, not only that but I'll be expanding on it. For those who don't know about Danganronpa 2 or Izuru I'll also explain that in later chapters and expand on it as well. So there's something for even those who know who Izuru is.**

 **Speaking of the devil, Izuru. To be frank we know next to nothing about him personality wise. All we've seen of him is the Despair version who only finds everything boring and is pessimistic to the point of being a jerk. I tried to make his personality like … edgy? or cool in the beginning. Like have him be this absolute badass who says 9 lines the entire fanfiction. But that would just make this fic an eyesore in my opinion. Writing an edgy character is like being a chuuni, it's fun while you're still in that age but then it's just embarrassing later. So with that said I tried to add a little life to his personality. Tell me what you think about it.**

 **Anyway enough about me rambling, tell me what you think about the chapter. Tell me if I did something wrong or if something could be improved upon.**


	4. Chapter 4: Goodbye Questions Pt 2

"I'm not coming."

"What do you mean you're not coming?" asked a confused Kuro Usagi.

"I have some questions I want to ask Shiroyasha." I moved my head to her direction to see her give me a set nod.

"W-well yeah it's pretty normal for you to have many questions after everything, but that can wait. You can ask her your questions at another time."

Looks like I have to be blunt "Listen Kuro Usagi, I'm not joining your Community." I didn't wait for that to sink in "The thought never crossed my mind. Rest assured the decision doesn't have to do with your Community's situation nor is it your fault that I don't want to join, I wasn't planning from the beginning. While all of you seem like nice people and I appreciate your offer to take me in, I prefer not to be bounded to a place."

"But…" It seems that she instinctively said that as she had no idea what to say next.

"Kuro Usagi. Leave him be, he made his mind." The Demon Lord stopped her "I shall take responsibility as the one who summoned him."

"B-but we were the ones who asked you to do that!"

"It doesn't change the fact that I made a mistake in summoning him." Shiroyasha made a motion with her hand which caused the shōji **(1)** to slide open. An unsaid request for the No Names to leave.

And they did, but not before giving me one last look. Yö and Asuka gave me a sad look, most likely dejected to separate from someone they just got to know and a bit close to. Izayoi give me a blank look, showing neutral features. Though it feels like he's analyzing me. The last one was Kuro Usagi, who's giving me a look that made me feel as if I've kicked a puppy… or a bunny in this case.

In the end they all left, which left me with Shiroyasha who's giving me a set look. This is going to be a long night.

I first reposition myself to sit facing her, the sounds of ruffling pillows are the only things that can be heard. It's kind of awkward but it looks like I have to start. "First of all…" I bowed with my head "I would like to thank you."

She just kept staring at me with her expressionless face…

…

"Huh what?" she blinked a couple of times, not comprehending what I just said.

"Thank you for summoning me, even if it's by accident." It looks like this needs some elaboration "Well you see, as much as I like my world, it misses somethings. Excitement, mystery and sense of adventure, I only understood those feelings after I came here." She seemed surprised by this "What were you expecting to hear?"

"Well I expected something like 'Send me back to my world.' or something… I don't know more normal?"

"Judging by your expression back then, I assume you can't send me back?"

"Unfortunately not, summoning you here was one thing but bringing you back… That would something along the lines of winning a big Gift Game or asking someone with higher power to send you back. I'll have you know the former option is considerably easier compared to the latter."

"Well I wouldn't have it any other way, I don't see myself wanting to leave this place anytime soon or ever."

At that statement the petite woman gave me another look, possibly evaluating me "You… I've been thinking about this for a while but you're not normal are you?"

I gave her an amused smile "I doubt anyone in this world would be considered _normal_."

She returned the smile "Haha well that's true but even then, for someone supposedly normal you seem pretty calm about this whole thing." she continued analyzing me "There's something more to you isn't there?"

"Possible, I more or less can take care of myself here so you don't have to worry about me" I assured her.

"I don't quite buy it, but you seem quite confident." she adjusted her posture, going into an informal one rather than the one she used earlier. "So. If you're not here to ask me to return you to your world, why didn't you go with them? Their Community is in bad shape but it's going to get better and they're nice people."

It was clear she was talking about the No Names "Of them being nice people I have no doubts and like I said it didn't have to do with their circumstances. In fact it had to do with mine. I have lived a confined life as far as I can remember." my whole life was Hope's Peak Academy. I have never gone past the gates "I was compassed to one place, that's why I want to have a sense of freedom. I want to be able to go somewhere on an adventure without having lingering thoughts or attachments."

"That's reasonable I guess, however you should know that starting out by yourself isn't easy here, I suggest you make allies fast."

Oh that's a nice advice "Then how about you become my first one?" I smiled amiably.

She was either surprised or amused by that comment if her raised eyebrow is anything to go by "You led me there didn't you? Was that your plan all along?"

All she got was a confused look "Whatever do you mean?"

"Tch, I've underestimated you…" she rubbed her head "Well I guess it's fine, I did say I'll take responsibility, keep that between us though. Floor Masters are supposed to be unbiased."

"Even though you're helping the No Names?" I inquired.

All I got was a confused look "Whatever do you mean?" too bad the corners of her mouth twitched for a second. "I'm treating them like normal customers, Kuro Usagi is different though. I just give her an extra pay for wearing those clothes during her job as a referee. It's completely for my benefit."

If she says so… Still she mentioned something interesting "Ah!" I slammed a fist in the palm of my left hand "So that's why she wears them even though she's embarrassed." that's one mystery solved.

"Yes, you are correct. Fufufu that outfit was designed by yours truly, a tool to make her show those supple breasts" she made groping motions as she said that "and those plump thighs she was hiding!" she was drooling at this point "It's not fair to hide those! You know what she wore before I came into her life? A shirt and pants. PANTS I SAY! THEY DIDN'T EVEN TRACE HER FIGURE, SOME PARTS WERE EVEN LOOSE. I DIDN'T GIVE HER THE EXTRA PAY BECAUSE I FELT PITY FOR HER, I GAVE IT TO HER BECAUSE I FELT PITY ON THE ASSETS SHE WAS HIDING!"

… Well that escalated quickly…

But she has a point… What? I can appreciate good things.

"Quite, it'd be a shame to hide those valuables, I'd even go as far and call that blasphemous. The outfit is a masterpiece, however I believe what makes the whole thing perfect are her reactions."

I leaned back out of instinct, my body moving unconsciously. That's because the moment I finished my words Shiroyasha closed the gap between us as she leaned on me face to face a _bit_ too closely. If I didn't do what I did she would've headbutted me and I don't want to find out how powerful the strongest Floor Master is.

"I KNOW RIGHT?! HER REACTIONS ARE THE CHERRY ON TOP OF THE CAKE! FIRST OF ALL SHE WAS SO EMBARRASSED SHE GOT TOMATO RED WHENEVER ANYONE LOOKED HER WAY. NOW HOWEVER SHE TRIES TO HIDE HER EMBARRASSMENT BY ACTING LIKE IT'S ALL NORMAL, SHE GETS ALL FLUSTERED HOWEVER WHENEVER YOU MENTION HER ATTIRE NONETHELESS. IT. IS. SO. _CUUUUUUUUTE!_ " The last word was said in such a high tone that it would've broken glass windows if there were any in this place.

She stood up, a shadow covering her face, courtesy of the light of the now visible moon. She turned around, walking to the porch.

"Kamuku- no Izuru, please come here." she motioned me to come, I think this is the most serious I saw of Shiroyasha so far. I did as she said and stood beside her viewing the backyard.

She was looking at the moon, I followed her gaze silently noticing how clear the stars are to see. Something like this would be impossible to see in Earth due to the pollution there, this is truly a sight for sore eyes.

I was stopped from my praising as I felt a small hand land on my shoulders. It was Shiroyasha, she was wearing a dreamy look gazing at the moon with tears dripping from her eyes as she clenched her fist. It would've looked perfect if it wasn't for the fact that she barely reached my shoulders as I'm twice her size.

"To summon a kindred spirit from another world, this is perha- no this is _definitely_ fate!" The way she said it was so resolute that I felt she would stand against the world if it disagreed with what she spoke.

For a few minutes, we stayed there. Gazing at the night sky, I just spent the time looking at the constellations, naming them and recalling their history. Ah, here is Scorpius, an animal that after a long, fierce fight defeated the hunter Orion, the son of Poseidon, and then raised forever into the night sky for catching the eye of Zeus.

Just because I didn't believe they were real didn't stop me from reading up on them. Whether it was due to my open-minded personality or the Ultimate Astrologist inside me I don't know. The rule of thumb is to believe it when you see it, as believing in everything would make you fool and not believing in anything would make you deranged.

Ah Shiroyasha went back to her place. It seems we are done doing… well whatever we were doing.

She sat on her zabuton (2) and I did the same. We are now once again facing each other.

"If I recall correctly you said that you wanted to ask me questions." Shiroyasha started "I assume you still have them right?"

"Yes." I nodded.

"Well this might take a bit… How about we talk it out on some tea?" I nodded again "Izumi!" she called.

I could here a couple of footsteps coming closer to us. The shōji was slid open to reveal the assistant who wanted to kick us out before. "Yes Shiroyasha-sama?" she asked politely.

"Bring some tea for us here."

I could swear she frowned for a millisecond there "Shiroyasha-sama I don't think I need to remind you that the closing time was imposed for 2 hours ago."

"Yes yes I know, you can retire for the day after bringing us tea. I have business with this young man and it would give the Thousand Eyes a bad image to not show hospitality."

Izumi relented with a nod and returned soon afterwards with a tray holding two cups of tea, green tea judging by the fragrance. She immediately left after delivering them to us.

Shiroyasha took a sip "Fuah! Nothing beats tea, something's missing though. Ah!" she snapped her fingers and something materialized in the place where the faint light shone to show a plate of… rice crackers "That's more like it, want some?" I took one with small thank you.

"Anyway enough delay, your questions?"

I'm very glad that she didn't forget my original request amidst all the chaos and the perversity. While it was fun indulging with her, I still need some things answered.

"Tell me, what's the secret of Kuro Usagi's skirt?"

"Fufu, so you noticed, as expected of my kindred spirit. You see, I used some high level magic on it to only allow people to _barely_ see underneath the skirt. Brilliant isn't it?!"

"Very, leaving it all up to imagination huh?" I closed my eyes nodding.

"I knew you'd understand! Some people think it's boring being able to not see what's under there, seriously what's up with those?! Do they not understand the power of imagination? What do you think there's under her skirt? It could be pure white panties, striped, or perhaps even sexy black? Or maybe even… NOTHING!"

I gave her a tissue for her bleeding nose. After she cleaned her nose we both stood together in perfect harmony and walked to the porch anew. Oh look there's Aquarius. Legends say that it represented Ganyemede, a handsome young man, so handsome infact that Zeus invited him to to be the cup-bearer (3) of the gods. He was then granted eternal youth and a place in the sky for his service.

This Zeus is just putting everyone on the sky, maybe if I meet him here I can ask him to put me as well? Nah highly unlikely.

* * *

"What's a Community you ask? Well they're just pretty much groups of people working together… Didn't Kuro Usagi tell you anything about that?"

"She did indeed, however the way she did it might've been just her trying to advertise the Little Garden. I wanted to confirm one thing however. Do you actually _need_ to be in a Community? She said that it's a must."

"Ah that's where she is wrong, it is not mandatory but it's common sense. Why fight against the world on your own when you can do it with others? That goes double for you humans, that's how you've always lived right?"

That's true, a stack of wooden sticks is harder to break than individual ones. Humans shaped Earth by working together, no one man could've done that on his own.

Still something was on my mind "What happens to Community-less people when they want to trade or make deals with Communities. I've seen how the No Names are treated…"

She thought about it "Well it's very uncommon but they're usually not trusted or easily trusted as a well-known Community. It's harder to make deal with someone who has no roots, someone who can just betray without repercussions." she looked at me intently "Are you still sure you aren't joining a Community?"

"Yes." I'm silently thankful for her worrying about me. I'm quite lucky to meet so many nice people in the time I've spent here.

She sighed "Fine then, give me your Piece of Laplace." she opened her hand motioning me to hand it over.

I gave her the black card I put earlier in my pocket. She raised an eyebrow "You do realize you can just materialize it by just thinking about it appearing and the other way around right?" No… she closed her eyes, opened them and handed the card back to me. Now it has 'Authorized by Thousand Eyes' on the corner with the Thousand Eyes seal as a background.

"This should make life easier, I trust you with this so don't do something stupid with it otherwise it'll hurt Thousand Eyes' standing." she debated whether to say something or not, in the end she gave in "Also, what's the story behind the name?"

Ah, she must mean _that_ "Have no fear about the first issue, I promise I won't make you regret it."

I thought about the card disappearing and it dissolved in a flash of particles. I gazed at it as it disappeared into air inwardly thinking how cool this is "About the other one... maybe I'll tell you someday."

"Hmm, well then I guess I'll look forward to it."

Well next one "You're a Demon Lord right? Can you explain what they are?"

She rubbed the back of her head and laughed nervously "Ahaha… Well about that I might've been swooped by the mood back then. I'm not actually a Demon Lord, well not anymore. About what they are… Well they are existences who posses a Host Master authority and abuse it…" she rubbed her head again, most likely trying to think a way to explain it to me "Look at it this way, you normally play a Gift Game with both parties' agreement, the Host Master authority pretty much negates that. Allowing you to construct a Gift Game and impose it on someone without them being able to disagree no matter how unfair it is… You can guess how terrifying that is."

"You said you were a former Demon Lord, does that mean you also abused it?"

"You're pretty sharp, I wouldn't call it abuse though I did make us of it. Keep in mind that not all Demon Lords are 'bad' so to say. Some of them might use the Host Master authority for good or to make harmless pranks. Unfortunately those are in the small minority. Does that answer your question?"

"Yes, thank you." there is one last thing I'm curious about "One last thing, how does communicating work here?"

She grew confused at my question "What do you mean how communicating works? You speak, though that's not what you're asking is it?"

Well I guess I'm at fault for not explaining it well "Let me elaborate, I thought it's weird how everyone here is speaking fluent Japanese despite not looking like it. Through experimenting I noticed that what you speak here doesn't matter, I think it's for convenience sake…" I looked at her, waiting for her evaluation on my theory.

"A smart deduction." she answered with a nod "I can't remember if anyone ever asked me this before… Well anyway it is as you say, the Little Garden is a place where cultures come together. Greek, Norse, Celtic, Hindu, Japanese and more. It'd be difficult if we couldn't understand each other, that's why the language system was created. Through the use of translation magic everyone is able to fathom each other, same goes for reading." she appeared to be thinking about something else "However, that is only if the speaker or writer himself wishes so." this made question marks float above my head and it seems she noticed my confusion "*Sigh* it's a pain to explain but see it like this, if I say something right now with the purpose of you understanding it like I'm doing at the moment, you will be able to comprehend it even though we're not speaking the same language. You're smart enough to conclude what happens if it's the other way."

I see… This explains why no one reacted to me speaking a different language all of a sudden. But wait, this leaves me with more questions "How come we couldn't understand what the griffon was talking about earlier?"

"Oh, yeah." she rubbed the back of her head sheepishly "Well about that, there are some races that only speak their language, whether it's out of pride or their incapability to do so. The former is the case for the griffon. The griffon is a proud race and that Gry is one of the proudest out there. Hence he only talks and acknowledge people who are able to understand their speech like that little girl." she must mean Yö "The only way to communicate with guys like him is to earn their acceptance or have a Gift that enables you to convey with them. That's pretty much it, anything else?"

"No thank you." I look outside to see that it's late… well later than when we started. "I guess I'll be going, I don't want to impose any longer."

"You don't have to be so polite, it was fun for me." she snapped her fingers summoning a sack, with metals inside judging by the clang. "Here, take this." she motioned for me to take it.

I did as she asked and found out it's a sack of coins, golden ones that have the symbol of Thousand Eyes on them. I don't know the currency here but I guess they're worth a lot "Thank you Shiroyasha I'll be sure to pay you back."

She dismissively waved at my statement "No need, consider it a gift."

"I didn't do anything for it though." I can't with with good conscious accept so much for doing nothing. I blame it on the modest Japanese mindset.

This got her thinking "Hmm… How about this? A challenge, if you complete it you can pay me back if you want. If you lose however, you get to keep it."

I raised an eyebrow "I could just lose then… Not the most flawless plan is it?"

She smiled slyly "But you won't do that will you?"

*Sigh* "Fine, what is it."

* * *

I've been walking for an hour from the Thousand Eyes store following Shiroyasha's directions. She said that someone she knows lives there and he's going to give me the challenge. It's practically midnight by now, only the road lamps illuminating my way.

I could go there way faster but I took this as a chance to explore the area. The area is filled with shops, from bakeries to clothing stores to jewelries.

I'm not here for any of them though, I continued walking to a rural area for farming. I just have to follow the path going uphill…

And this should be the pl…ace.

I found myself staring at a huge mansion, I'm not surprised by the place itself. Rather by the vibe it's giving. It looks like a carbon copy of a stereotypical haunted mansion.

Broken windows, check.

Withering plants, check.

Suspiciously open gates, check.

Crows, check.

All of those were even more amplified by the current time and the clear moon. Pretty much a perfect recipe for a haunted mansion, the ambience is only missing a- wait was that lightning I just saw? I'm pretty sure I didn't imagine that, no sound came out though…

I have a bad feeling about this… Nevertheless I'm going to go in, this is my first time in one so it should be interesting. You know I've always wondered why main characters are so stupid to walk into haunted mansions even though it's obvious that it isn't a good idea. Maybe they were also sent a challenge by a small girl who is actually a god?

Nah I think them being just plain stupid is more logical.

I go through the gates, walking through the big front garden which must've looked impressive at one point. I reach the mansion door and open it. Surprisingly, contradicting to the outside, the inside looks elegant and well-kept.

I took a few steps in the main hall when the floor opened in a trapdoor fashion, I immediately spread my legs out to adhere myself to the hole's walls in order to stop myself from falling. I grabbed my scarf and I threw it, wrapping it around a sconce nearby. The moment I did that the trap door spread further, making me lose my footing.

I was ready for anything, log traps, spikes, maybe even something like a lava pool under me. But apparently I wasn't.

Before I could even pull myself up the sconce my scarf was wrapped around dissolved into particles just like what happened to my card at Thousand Eyes. Leaving me to fall into the abyss down under…

It was at this moment that I realized… I fucking hate magic.

* * *

I kept falling for a long time, so long that it got boring. During this entire fall I never sensed a danger for my life and I couldn't do anything about it. As talented as I am, even I can't defy the natural law of gravity. After some time I finally saw what looked like the bottom, I tried to land no matter how fruitless it seems.

Only instead of the impact I was expecting, I landed on a soft surface. One that sent me right back up like a trampoline and the second time it did that the floor turned solid and hard allowing me to step normally.

The room's design was very eccentric to say the least, the one who designed it either did this on purpose or is insane. The floor was in checkers style, black and white squares. The walls were bright pink and the furniture was in every colour you could think of, red couch, blue desk, yellow chair etc… If I was any less headstrong I think I might've puked at the sight.

Thankfully something else caught my attention, I found a black piece of paper laid on a white square I picked it up only to notice how similar it looks to the scroll we got during our first Gift Game with Kuro Usagi. On the scroll was only one sentence.

 **DOWN THE RABBIT-HOLE**

* * *

(1) Shōji are the sliding paper doors that are used in traditional Japanese homes/buildings.

(2) Zabuton are the cushions used (generally) for sitting on the floor.

(3) Cup-bearer is pretty much someone who serves wine.

* * *

 **Sorry for the long wait, no excuse for this one. It just seems that I have too much to do that I don't know what to do in the end.**

 **Anyway I'll have you guys know that I actually read and appreciate every review. The reason why I don't reply to them is well… there's nothing much to reply to. I rather leave stuff unanswered if you're going to find out later in the story since it's going to explain itself anyway.**

 **In response to a certain reviewer (You know I can't pm when you post as a guest x,x). Saying that everyone is underestimating Izuru is a bit much seeing as 'everyone' is only 3/4 people. But that everyone assumes that Izuru is going to die, how do I explain it… Summoning the three is fine as the whole point is summoning humanity's greatest Gifts. Those Gifts are all strong and have extremely high potential, enough that they form a danger to others rather than the opposite. Now imagine you summoned a normal guy in a world where conflict is normal, so normal in fact that they based a whole system for solving conflict. That doesn't stop people from committing crimes and don't forget that while Demon Lords while are not common, they also appear from time to time. They saw what could happen if things go wrong with Galdo. Look at this from their viewpoint, what if Izuru was alone and someone like Galdo decided to attack him? He being a normal human would stand no chance and just… die.**

 **Shiroyasha just summoned someone uninvolved in this whole thing into a dangerous world. Let me put it like this even if it's somewhat morbid: People die everyday, you open the news and bam, 5 dead 19 heavily injured and 53 lightly wounded. While yes you may find this sad or unfortunate and it varies from person to person, at the end of the day they're strangers that you don't know so you won't feel any strong emotions (depends on you honestly). Now let's say that you pushed someone to death or dragged him into something that caused his death. That guy would've been perfectly fine if it wasn't for you, how'd you feel then?**

 **Well at least that's how I see it.**

 **Moving on: Danganronpa 3… It's a hard one really, I don't know how to feel about it. In a fan's perspective it's pretty cool! We can finally get the finale of the series (not including the next Danganronpa game) and we see how the Ultimate Despairs were before they went all baddy and shit.**

 **From a writer's perspective it might be nice to have a foundation for the story, but I kind of had a whole original story mapped in my head for the Danganronpa part, mainly Izuru's backstory. I don't know how much the anime would affect it, so I'll put that on hold till the anime finishes.**

 **Honestly the future arc to me is like: Everything is going to shit.**

 **The despair arc is like: Dawwwww they're so cuuuuute! But then everything goes to shit.**

 **By the way I should really start getting creative with those chapter titles… I wanted every title to start of with 'Goodbye' so it's kind of like the cover of the 2nd game 'Goodbye Despair'. But now I see the fault in that. Oh well let's cross that bridge when we get to it.**

* * *

 **EDIT: Well sorry guys, not a chapter, just an update. I added a segment I completely forgot about, so at least you have something to read. It's the part after Izuru asks Shiroyasha about Communities if you haven't noticed. It's part of the 'I'm-going-to-expand-on-this-universe-since-canon-didn't' campaign.**

 **I'll have you know I'm not dead... yet. The next chapter will be late, but I'll make it a big one to compensate, possibly bigger than chapter 3.**

 **In reply to the same reviewer. Glad you liked it, I might've focused a lot on the 'he's going to die without powers thing' but it is more than that, he won't live a say 'fulfilling' life. Sure he's not gonna die the moment he sets a foot out as there are many other 'normal' people but he still will be below those who have power and it's because they have powers that they think so. Eh, it's just how I see it.**

 **Also thanks Zakath for sharing your opinion, it helped me make my choice.**


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